Report calls for the designing, piloting and developing of alternatives to detaining migrants
Detention Action yesterday launched a new report exploring the use of possible alternatives to the detention of migrants in the UK.
You can read the 72-page Without Detention: Opportunities for alternatives here.
Detention Action campaigns to end the use of immigration detention without time limit in the UK, and the practice of detaining people because they have claimed asylum.
The UK has one of the largest detention estates in Europe and continues to detain over 30,000 migrants annually.
In its report, Detention Action says there "appears to be a growing realisation that the focus on detention and enforcement is expensive and often ineffective, causing incalculable harm to migrants and their families whilst often failing to achieve migration governance objectives."
With this is mind, the report sets out how alternatives to detention can allow a different approach, meeting the needs of both Government and migrants.
Particular focus is paid to the Community Assessment and Placement (CAP) model developed by the International Detention Coalition: "a practical tool for governments and other stakeholders to develop effective and humane systems for governing irregular migration… reviewing and analysing their current migration governance framework and… exploring alternatives that work in their context". (You can read more about it here.)
Using the CAP model, Detention Action's report explores opportunities for developing alternatives in the UK, in the returns procedure, instead of the Detained Fast Track and for ex-offenders exposed to long-term detention.
Chapter 11 of the report provides a 15-point summary of recommendations.
Among the recommendations, Detention Action says there should be more in-depth investigations into and discussions about alternatives to detention, by the government, by the judiciary, by legal practitioners, by civil society organisations, by migrant support groups and by migrants themselves.
The report says alternatives to detention should be developed with the capacity and range to meet the needs of all migrants for whom less coercive measures than detention are appropriate.
The report also recommends that "[h]igh quality immigration advice should be available throughout the process, as far as possible front-loaded at the start of the process."
Jerome Phelps, Director of Detention Action, was quoted in a press release as saying: "There is abundant evidence that detention is not necessary for the Government's immigration governance objectives. With support and engagement, migrants can resolve their cases in the community, without detention. Civil society and communities have a crucial role to play in developing alternatives that can reduce government's use of detention."