Home Office says review will seek to identify whether improvements can be made to safeguard the health and wellbeing of detainees
Home Secretary Theresa May has today announced that an independent review will be carried out on the welfare of immigrants held in immigration detention centres.
A news article on GOV.UK says the wide-ranging review is expected to last six months and will be led by Stephen Shaw, a former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales.
Image credit: WikipediaThe Home Office says the review will seek to identify whether improvements can be made to safeguard the health and wellbeing of detainees, and those being escorted in the UK.
Theresa May was quoted as saying: "Immigration detention is a vital tool in helping ensure those with no right to remain in the UK are returned to their home country.
"But I take the welfare of those in the government's care very seriously and I want to ensure the health and wellbeing of all detainees, some of whom may be vulnerable, is safeguarded at all times.
"That is why I have asked Stephen Shaw, who has a wealth of relevant experience, to undertake a comprehensive review of our immigration detention estate.
"We are building an immigration system that is fair to British nationals and legitimate migrants, but we must also ensure it treats those we are removing from the UK with an equal sense of fairness."
Responding to the announcement, the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, Maurice Wren, said: "Sadly, this review won’t even scratch the surface of the ugly cover up occurring at the heart of the British justice system. What is needed is an end to the process by which anonymous officials are given the power to lock up people for as long as the Home Office sees fit, not because they have committed any offences, but because it’s politically expedient to do so."
Also today, the Home Office released the Review of Mental Health Issues in Immigration Removal Centres carried out by the Tavistock Institute. You can read it here.
According to BBC News' Home Affairs Correspondent, Danny Shaw, the report was presented to the Home Office a year ago, but has only now been published.
The Home Office reportedly said the delay in publishing the Tavistock report was because they were working together to "understand" its findings.
The report's executive summary states:
"The Home Office has a well-developed range of policies and procedures relating to detention and case-working, which do not always work smoothly in practice.
3.2 Difficulties surrounding mental health issues of detainees in the Immigration Return Centres (IRCs) are linked to the complexity inherent in the system.
3.3 IRCs have two main priorities: firstly, helping to effect the speedy removal of those who are in the country illegally; and, secondly, ensuring the welfare of individuals while in detention. The needs of these two priorities and the Home Office structures in place to deliver them both can lead to internal organisational conflict which leads to being less effective and efficient at both.
3.4 The relationships between policy makers, managers, detention centre custody staff, healthcare staff and caseworkers may sometimes be characterised by a degree of mutual defensiveness.
3.5 Mutual antagonism and suspicion operate in the relationships between the Home Office and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), official oversight bodies and voluntary organisations operating in the sector.
3.6 Detention itself can create highly stressful situations for detainees and staff alike. Building of unrealistic expectations as to the likelihood of staying in the UK by those advising them can also lead to increased uncertainty and stress for detainees.
3.7 Vulnerable detainees may deteriorate in a detention situation where caseworkers, sub-contractors, solicitors and other agencies are often in disagreement with one another and thus feeding the detainees' sense of powerlessness, hopelessness and fear of the future.
3.8 Psychological talking therapies are scarce in the IRCs. This therapeutic approach has been used elsewhere to prevent or relieve serious psychiatric breakdown.
3.9 Because of the underlying defensive dynamic, the current 'culture/s' in the IRCs will likely continue unchanged. The provision of training, more staff, different providers and other inputs, will likely be incorporated into the existing defensive culture/s. Therefore no real change is likely to take place.
3.10 The Home Office's and IRCs' culture of 'detention' should be shifted towards a culture of 'temporary transitional institution' with the primary task of aiding, helping and preparing detainees to be returned to their countries of origin. This would be a culture-changing initiative."
The Home Office's 8-page response to the report can be read here.
Meanwhile, IRIN published an article on Friday on how the UK's detention policy worsens migrants' mental health. You can read it here.
It notes: "Unlimited immigration detention contributes to – and can even cause – lasting mental health problems among detainees, according to IRIN interviews with former detainees, aid and advocacy groups and UK court decisions."