Report examines impact on 36 individuals who received Notice of Intent for removal
A significant new report by Medical Justice takes a look at the harm being caused by the Government's policy of targeting asylum seekers for relocation to Rwanda.
You can download the 28-page report here.
Medical Justice says the UK's migration agreement with Rwanda is "cruel and unconscionable" and is already having a profound impact on asylum seekers arriving in the UK.
In its report, Medical Justice details the effects of the policy on the health and wellbeing of 36 people who arrived in the UK to claim asylum and were subsequently selected for removal to Rwanda.
The report also describes the process whereby asylum seekers receive a Notice of Intent (NOI), which tells an individual that the Home Office is considering removing them to Rwanda or another country they have passed through.
The report explains: "Medical Justice has been in contact with 51 people who have had Notice of Intent (NOI) for removal to Rwanda, since mid-May 2022. This report collates and analyses anonymous data from 36 of the 51 people. The 36 people were selected for inclusion on the basis of Medical Justice caseworkers provided support to them and we had sufficient information on, and includes the 17 people who Medical Justice clinicians have conducted medical assessments for."
NOIs were issued to the 36 asylum seekers between two and twenty-eight days after they arrived in the UK to claim asylum.
Medical Justice notes that the NOIs were all issued in English and many of the asylum seekers reported that the documents were not explained to them in a language they could understand.
In addition, while the NOI states that a person has seven days to respond with reasons about why they should not be sent to Rwanda, the asylum seekers faced difficulties accessing timely legal advice.
Medical Justice said: "Out of the total of 36 people, at least 24 people did not have legal representation when they received their NOI. Only two individuals are known to have had legal representation. For the remaining 10, it is not known whether they had legal representation at the time."
The report continued: "The lack of adequate access to legal advice has resulted in individuals not fully understanding the meaning of the NOI, what they may need to do to respond to it, and the short time frame they have to challenge it. The later an individual accesses legal advice, the less time they will have to challenge the NOI."
Medical Justice is concerned that there may be some individuals who did not make contact with a lawyer.
Section 6 of the report details the harmful impact of receiving the NOI on many of the individuals.
Clinicians from Medical Justice found that the prospect of removal to Rwanda is causing people to experience fear, confusion, uncertainty about their safety and a loss of hope. The prospect of removal to Rwanda also reduced individuals' resilience to psychological effects of trauma and exacerbated existing mental health symptoms. Among some of the individuals, doctors found that the prospect of removal increased the risk of self-harm and suicide.
Medical Justice explains in the report: "The experience of constant fear for their futures means that individuals facing removal to Rwanda are denied a sense of safety, therefore causing distress and exacerbating individuals' mental health symptoms. The experience of such fear is noted to be is a strong re-traumatising factor, which would impact the effectiveness of any treatment accessed while they remain in the UK subject to removal to Rwanda, and once they are removed to Rwanda. Specifically, PTSD symptoms are highly sensitive to insecurity or a lack of sense of safety, so the likelihood of success of treatment would be significantly decreased. It is important to note that the prospect of removal is enough to create this impact; people experienced these harms regardless of the situation they might encounter in Rwanda and despite the removals not going ahead. This highlights the damage that is already being caused."
The report also details the existence of vulnerabilities amongst the individuals who may be sent to Rwanda, with Medical Justice noting: "The Home Office have been detaining people on arrival, whilst considering them for removal to Rwanda. However, not only are people not properly screened for removal to Rwanda, there is also no effective existing screening mechanism for particular vulnerabilities upon arrival to the UK or before someone is detained. Therefore, there are no pre-established mechanisms that effectively identify vulnerable people."
Of the 17 people out of the 36 who Medical Justice completed medico-legal reports (MLRs) on, 16 had trauma symptoms or histories of trauma and 14 people had a diagnosis of depression. 11 people had a diagnosis of PTSD or complex PTSD. Several individuals had physical health problems, with one found to require urgent investigations to rule out recurrence of a previous brain tumour.
The MLRs also identified significant barriers to full participation in legal processes for some of the individuals, with one identified to lack capacity to understand legal proceedings and provide instructions, according to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Dr Rachel Bingham, Clinical Advisor for Medical Justice, said extremely high rates of evidence of torture, trafficking and other vulnerabilities were found in the group of asylum seekers who received NOIs.
Bingham added: "The policy knowingly places people in an extremely damaging situation and should be considered exceptionally harmful. As a doctor, what shocks me most is the total disregard for the need to assess the risks of subjecting individual people to this policy."
In response to the report, a Home Office spokesperson was quoted by ITV News as saying: "The Medical Justice report features a number of inaccuracies and misrepresentations about the policy which we have previously addressed. We have been clear from the start that no one will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them, and our thorough assessment of Rwanda has found that it is a fundamentally safe and secure country, with a track record of supporting asylum seekers."