Voluntary prison monitoring body releases annual reports on Heathrow IRC and London short-term holding facilities
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) last week released its annual report on the Heathrow immigration removal centre (IRC). The 49-page report is available here.
IMB is a voluntary body that monitors the welfare of prisoners in England and Wales, and immigration detainees in the UK.
Heathrow IRC is Europe's largest removal centre with capacity for nearly 1,000 detainees. It comprises two separate adjacent sites formally known as Harmondsworth IRC and Colnbrook IRC. The IMB undertakes visits to the Heathrow site at least once a week, every week of the year.
In its latest annual report, the IMB concludes that Heathrow IRC is generally safe, but there are numerous areas of concern, some longstanding, some new, that impacted the overall environment of the centre during 2022.
Among the concerns raised is the continued detention of people with mental health problems. The IMB said: "We remain concerned that people who are mentally unfit for detention are still assessed and approved by the Home Office Gate Keeper for detention. Furthermore, the IMB feels that failings of the detention engagement team (DET) to engage effectively may have contributed to feelings of frustration and powerlessness for some detainees, potentially leading to incidents of self-harm. While the increase in population will have contributed to an increase in the number of acts of self-harm in 2022, up from 104 in 2021 to 150, any incident is one too many. We do not believe that the immigration detention estate (IDE) should be expected to take responsibility for those who are mentally unfit for detention."
Overall engagement with detainees by the Home Office's detention engagement team was lacking throughout the year, leading to the IMB expressing extreme concern over the issue.
Detainees were not kept sufficiently informed about their cases: "Of particular concern to the Board was the level of communication regarding case progression, and particularly delays regarding the provision of 'approved' accommodation. There were frequent approaches to the Board regarding the delays experienced by detainees who had been granted bail and remained in detention for weeks, indeed months, awaiting decisions on accommodation. The impact on the mental health of these detainees was appreciable."
The IMB notes that the atmosphere in Heathrow IRC during the second quarter of 2022 was significantly impacted by the Government's Rwanda policy and the failed attempt to remove six detainees to Rwanda. Detainees selected for removal had little access to information regarding their deportation which caused significant anxiety.
Sabine Zanker, the chair of the IMB for Heathrow, said: "Based on our exposure to June 2022's failed Charter to Rwanda, we would urge the government to address our concerns about timings, general transparency and the quality of information prepared for those being deported. Every effort should be made to minimise the stress, upset and increased chances of self-harm caused by the Migration and Economic Development Partnership policy, on both those affected and those in the wider immigration detention estate."
Length of detention remained a concern, with some detainees being held too long at the IRC.
The report states: "The Board repeats its concern for the third year running that too many detainees are held for unacceptably long periods of time with no chance of imminent removal. Five men were held in [Heathrow IRC] for over 180 days each in 2022, with the longest stayer having spent 1,177 days in detention."
In addition, 2022 saw an increased number of areas and circumstances in which detainees were not treated fairly. Infrastructure improvements are said to be badly needed to ensure Heathrow IRC can provide safety and security to all detainees.
The report explains: "The fairness and humanity with which detainees are treated is severely tested by the dilapidated nature of the infrastructure in which they are expected to reside. The Board notes, in particular, the frequency of loss of services (power, gas, water and communications) throughout the year (over 30 incidents, culminating in a 42- hour power and water outage which forced the evacuation of the entire Harmondsworth site), the state of the ventilation and heating systems and the hostel-style units on the Harmondsworth site which require considerable updating to be fit for purpose."
While the Board found the food served to detainees to be adequate, the IMB remains concerned about the effect the variety, quantity and quality of the food on offer is having on detainee physical and mental wellbeing.
Complaints made about the food, and other issues, were rarely upheld: "In all, 85% of the official complaints made during 2022 were unsubstantiated. Detainees expressed their scepticism to members of the Board regarding the process for carrying out the investigation of complaints, suggesting complaining about anything was pointless. In respect of complaints about service delivery, this was especially the case regarding food and catering, for which the Board received many more applications (49 in total) than the eight received by the Contractor, all of which were unsubstantiated upon investigation."
The IMB concludes that if the IRC is to continue to exist in its present location then significant investment is required to ensure its continued viability, as well as managing the safety of detained people. "We trust that the new contract in 2023 will recognise these challenges by delivering the infrastructure improvements so badly needed," Sabine Zanker added.
Earlier this month, the IMB released its annual report on short-term holding facilities (STHF) in London. You can download the 35-page report here.
The report covers facilities at Heathrow and London City Airport, and reporting facilities at Eaton House in Hounslow and Becket House in Southwark.
Concerns raised in the report include people being detained for too long, sometimes overnight, in holding rooms with nowhere to sleep and no privacy, and delays in processing cases due to insufficient numbers of Border Force staff. Translation services were also lacking.
The chair of the London STHF IMB, Jo Dibb, said: "Overall, we have found many detention and escort staff to be caring and sympathetic to detained people, including vulnerable individuals and families. However, detention is often an isolating and uncomfortable experience, especially for those individuals who are waiting for long periods, are tired and anxious after their flights and, in the most worrying cases, are fearful of what will happen to them if they are sent back to their own country."