2023 annual report published on little used pre-departure accommodation for families at Gatwick airport
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) today released its 2023 annual report on the Gatwick pre-departure accommodation (PDA), which serves as a temporary holding space for families facing removal from the UK.
You can download the 12-page report here.
The PDA is managed by Serco alongside its contract to manage Gatwick immigration removal centre (IRC), which comprises Brook House and Tinsley House.
The IMB's report highlights significant concerns over the welfare of detained families at the PDA, especially children, and questions the effectiveness of the facility. As the report notes, the PDA was used on only four occasions in 2023, involving four families with children, none of whom were ultimately removed from the UK.
Since opening in June 2017, only six families have been removed: "From IMB annual reports since 2017, 44 families have been held in the PDA as part of the Home Office family removals process, with only six of those removals going ahead. At the end of 2023, these figures read as 48 families held with only six being removed."
While physical conditions at the PDA are good and detainees are treated well by staff, the IMB is concerned about the emotional and psychological impact on children and their families during their time in detention. The Board reported instances of children being exposed to their parents' considerable distress, as well as prolonged trauma during removal attempts. Children also sometimes find themselves interpreting for their parents with staff.
In one disturbing case highlighted in the report, a mother and her three young children, aged five, four, and two, were held at the PDA in April 2023. The mother, referred to as Ms O, learned she was pregnant shortly after being detained. Despite this, removal proceedings continued, leading to what the Board described as "callous treatment and unnecessary suffering". The attempted removal was eventually abandoned.
The report states: "Removal directions were served on Ms O after midday and the removal was not formally cancelled until about four hours later. For much of this time, Ms O sat naked in a toilet in her apartment in the PDA refusing to engage with the escorts. Reports from Serco PDA staff who were with her were that she was very stressed and, as time went on, that she was engaging with them less and later that she was 'declining' and starting to hunch over and rock to and fro, causing staff to feel that it was necessary to increase to 15-minute observations under the [Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork]."
Based on its findings, the IMB recommends the closure of the unit and an end to the detention of children there.
Neil Beer, the Chair of the IMB for the Family PDA, said: "There is a fundamental question of whether it is decent or humane to detain families with children. From our monitoring, the suffering and distress of parents is evident, and we have concerns about the impact of detention on the mental and emotional well-being of all members of families held in the Family PDA, in particular around the impact on children. We have seen children taking on responsibilities beyond their years. The Board's view is that no child should be put at risk by the kind of experience endured by those detained in the Family PDA in 2023."
Responding to the IMB's report, the charity Detention Action commented: "We are deeply saddened by the distress and trauma children and families have endured in detention. No child or parent should face such harm. We urge the government to reconsider plans to expand the detention estate in light of these shocking findings."