HMI Prisons releases new inspection report on detention facilities at five airports and ten seaports across Great Britain
An inspection report of short-term holding facilities (STHF) managed by the Home Office Border Force finds that conditions have improved at the facilities, but concerns remain over the treatment of children and vulnerable adults.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe 33-page inspection report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales (HMI Prisons) is available here.
HMI Prisons visited short-term holding facilities at five airports and ten seaports across Great Britain, ranging from Poole to Aberdeen.
STHFs hold individuals and families who have been detained at the border by the UK Border Force. A total of 811 detainees had been held across all sites in the six months prior to HMI Prisons' inspection. In that six-month period, detainees were held at the facilities for an average of over six hours. The longest detention was for over 32 hours.
A previous inspection report published in June 2020 found very poor conditions at STHFs and inadequate leadership and management, with Border Force senior managers unable to say with certainty which ports actually had detention facilities. HMI Prisons said this suggested an alarming lack of oversight and accountability.
Three years later, HMI Prisons finds notable improvements at the facilities. Most of the sites that were in an unacceptable physical condition in 2020 had been rebuilt or refurbished, though conditions at Felixstowe and Purfleet remained unacceptable.
On Border Force management practices, the report states: "There had been considerable improvements in leadership, management and coordination since the previous inspection. In 2020, leadership at national level had been inadequate partly through successive temporary postholders in key roles. However, it had now become more regularised and consistent, with more permanent managers in post. Operational guidance had been improved and consolidated into a single document, available to all sites."
HMI Prisons' report also raises a number of concerns and it notes there is still much work to be done to make sure consistent and satisfactory standards are maintained across all the sites. In particular, the report found children and adults vulnerable to harm did not always receive appropriate or sufficient support or care.
HMI Prisons said unaccompanied children were being detained for too long and for over two hours longer on average than adults. Safeguarding processes were not sufficiently robust, meaning children who were vulnerable to modern slavery might not have been identified.
At some STHFs, older children were routinely handcuffed.
HMI Prisons said: "There remained significant inconsistencies in practice, for example, in the searching and handcuffing of children. In some facilities, children were routinely given a rub-down search. In others, children were searched with an electronic device and only subject to a further search if the device indicated that there was a concealed item. In several centres, older children were sometimes handcuffed. … We saw documentation showing how Border Force staff at Tilbury took a child to foster accommodation in handcuffs."
The report adds that there was a lack of formal well-documented care planning for detainees identified as vulnerable, which could have contributed to their vulnerability. They included detainees with protected characteristics, for example women and those with disabilities or serious health conditions.
HMI Prisons was also concerned to find legal advice was not readily available to detainees, including children.
The report notes: "There was no routine provision for detained children to have access to a legal adviser under a 'duty' system as in some other forms of custody and, in some facilities, information and access to free legal advice was very limited or non-existent."
HMI Prisons further noted: "There was no access to a detention duty legal advice service in any of the facilities and information about legal advice varied between locations. Most facilities provided contact details for local providers accredited by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, but a list displayed at Harwich was for the wrong region. Some facilities displayed only the contact numbers of national organisations. The ability of detainees to contact legal advisers also varied."
HMI Prisons recommends that unaccompanied minors being removed from the UK should have access to legal advice and should receive a welfare interview with a responsible adult present.