In addition to publishing their evaluation of the second Home Office Funded community based alternative to detention pilot project, they have also published a helpful summary of the two pilot projects. This summary includes the first pilot, run by Action Foundation, and the second pilot, run by the King’s Arms Project.
The Home Office started these pilot projects in response to the recommendation in the report by Stephen Shaw back in 2018, and they had committed to four different pilot projects. These two pilot projects show that there is a really interesting, effective and cheaper model here as well as being compassionate. It is bleak that the Home Office has said that it will not run the final two pilots it had already committed to. They should run these pilots and roll-out this community based alternative to immigration detention.
A constant line from government supporting MPs is that there is no alternative to the Government’s immigration plans – but the fact is that there is an alternative which is effective, compassionate and saves money. We will continue to make the case for the Government to change direction – there is a better way!
