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- Misleading Figures About Self-Harm in Yarl's Wood ******************************************************************* Rapar Welcomes "Robust" Detention Report but There Are Key Omissions
The substantial increase in the number of people kept in Fast Track Detention is creating "huge unfairness", a leading Human Rights lawyer says. Louise Christian was responding to the findings in today's report from the Inquiry into the use of Immigration Detention in the UK. The Report has been generally welcomed but Louise Christian sounds a warning about the dangers of the proposed 28 day limit to detention being used as an excuse to remove detained fast track asylum applicants "before they have had full access to lawyers, screening for torture and abuse, and due process." RAPAR, while applauding a robust document that highlights several key issues, is opposed to the use of detention per se and, as such, does not support the Report's call for a 28 day limit. RAPAR is also extremely troubled by three serious omissions:
The policing practices used to arrest, detain, and transport refugees to Immigration Removal Centres throughout the UK are fundamental to DFT operations and detention and they reveal an approach which assumes that people seeking asylum are criminal from the outset. RAPAR has found that overwhelmingly black refugees are often detained through the use of violence: privately-run security firm personnel breaking into homes or pursuing refugees on the streets of Manchester (Montano, N. (2014). "Seeking Asylum is not Criminal" The detention and policing of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. RAPAR. Manchester, UK. Available on request). Some IRC facilities, such as Harmondsworth, use solitary confinement (Montano, 2014) This is unacceptable, and any use of solitary confinement must be ended immediately. The report explicitly states that women who have experienced sexual assault should not be placed in detention, but ignores men who may have been victims of sexual assault, rape, or gendered violence [pg 64-67]. Although the statistics on sexual violence experienced by any demographic are hard to discern from the available data, men also experience sexual and gendered violence, and refugees may be at a higher risk of sexual/gendered violence, regardless of sex. This omission may have serious unintended consequences for victims of sexual/gendered violence, especially those who identify as LGTB. For further information please contact Kathleen Grant 07758386208 or Dr Rhetta Moran 07776264646: www.rapar.org.uk Parliamentary Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention Concludes The panel recommend that the UK government should learn from best practice abroad where alternatives to detention are used, which not only allow individuals to live in the community, but which also allow the government to maintain immigration control at a much lower cost to the state. The panel argues that depriving an individual of their liberty for the purposes of immigration detention should be an absolute last resort and only used to effect removal. The UK is the only country in the European Union not to have an upper time limit on detention, and the panel conclude that the lack of a time limit has significant mental health costs for detainees, as well as considerable financial costs to the taxpayer. The panel also:
Sarah Teather MP, Chair of the inquiry panel and Lib Dem MP for Brent Central, said: "The UK is an outlier in not having a time limit on detention. During the inquiry, we heard about the huge uncertainty this causes people to live with, not knowing if tomorrow they will be released, removed from the country, or continue being in detention. As a panel, we have concluded that the current system is expensive, ineffective and unjust. We are calling the next Government to learn from the alternatives to detention that focus on engagement with individuals in their communities, rather than relying on enforcement and deprivation of liberty." Paul Blomfield MP, Vice-chair of the panel and Labour MP for Sheffield Central, said: "Current Home Office policy is that detention should be used as a last resort and for the shortest possible time. From the evidence that we heard, Home Office standard practice falls well short of this policy. In our report, we recommend that far fewer people should be detained, that detention should always be a last resort, and that it should only ever be for a maximum of 28 days. Other countries manage to maintain immigration control without resorting to indefinite detention. So can we." David Burrowes MP, a member of the inquiry panel and Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, said: "This inquiry is an unusual one. Immigration is on the political agenda but rarely do we unite on a cross party basis and consider the issue of immigration detention. The lack of a time limit is resulting in people being locked up for months and, in some cases, several years purely for administrative reasons. While there is a need to properly control our borders, people who arrive by fair means or foul must also be treated with dignity and respect throughout the immigration process." The current system is failing to sufficiently do this and our report calls for an urgent rethink. We should follow the example of other countries where rates of detention are much lower and removal rates much higher." Parliament: Statement on Yarl's Wood All immigration removal centres are subject to the detention centre rules approved by this House in 2001. Those rules, and further operational guidance, set out the standards that we all expect to ensure that the safety and dignity of detainees is upheld. No form of discrimination is tolerated. In addition to the rules, removal centres are subject to regular independent inspections by Her Majesty's inspectorate of prisons and by independent monitoring boards that publish their findings. The chairman of the independent monitoring board for Yarl's Wood is Mary Coussey, the former independent race monitor. The most recent inspection by Her Majesty's chief inspector of prisons found Yarl's Wood to be a safe and respectful centre that is continuing to improve. The last annual report of the independent monitoring board commented positively on the emphasis placed on purposeful activities within the centre and the expansion of welfare provision, and raised no concerns about safety. None the less, the Home Office expects the highest levels of integrity and professionalism from all its contractors and takes any allegations of misconduct extremely seriously. As soon as we were made aware of the recent allegations, Home Office officials visited Yarl's Wood to secure assurances that all detainees were being treated in a safe and dignified manner. The director general of immigration enforcement has written to Serco making our expectations about its response to these allegations very clear. We told Serco that it must act quickly and decisively to eradicate the kinds of attitudes that appear to have been displayed by its staff. Serco immediately suspended one member of staff who could be identified from information available before the broadcast, and has suspended another having seen the footage. The company has also commissioned an independent review of its culture and staffing at Yarl's Wood. This will be conducted for Serco by Kate Lampard, who, as the House will be aware, recently produced the "lessons learned" review of the Jimmy Savile inquiries for the Department of Health. However, more needs to be done. The Home Office has made it clear that we expect to see the swift and comprehensive introduction of body-worn cameras for staff at Yarl's Wood. In addition, we have discussed with Her Majesty's chief inspector of prisons how he might provide further independent assurance. Theresa May 'Allowed State-Sanctioned Abuse of Women' at Yarl's Wood She also laid into the home secretary for last November extending the contract for Serco to run Yarl's Wood, despite allegations about abuse, sexual exploitation, rape and self-harm at the centre in Bedfordshire. She told the Commons: "There is no point in ministers pretending to be shocked at news of abuse. This is not news. Even now, the ministers have not set up an independent inquiry. Serco has … This is state-sanctioned abuse of women on the home secretary's watch and it needs to end now." The three-month undercover investigation by Channel 4 news filmed Serco guards describing various detainees as "black bitch", "animals", "beasties" and "evil". At one point a guard was filmed commenting: "They are all slashing their wrists, apparently. Let them slash their wrists ... It's attention-seeking."
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