We were interested to read the media story yesterday focussing on HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ recent reports into Detention Centres. Following on from his recent report on Harmondsworth, all eight main detention centres in the UK have been found by the Chief Inspector to have the most serious categories of failings.
He has warned that the safety of immigration removal centres across the country is deteriorating and that the government’s use of them is potentially traumatising vulnerable migrants.
And his quote in the media is also very powerful: “Depriving someone of their liberty is a very serious act, and people should only be detained in IRCs when the prospect of their removal from the country is imminent. In every inspection of IRCs, we find people being held for far longer than they should be, some for years, and at Harmondsworth nearly two-thirds were being released, which begs the question of why they were being detained in the first place at great expense to the taxpayer and potentially causing additional trauma to already vulnerable people.”
As a network of over 50 independent organisations, we are making and will continue to make case to the new Government that it is time for change!
