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A time limit on indefinite detention Detention Action March 2014

March 2015

Briefing: The report of the

Parliamentary inquiry on detention

Summary

The first Parliamentary inquiry into the detention system as a whole has concluded that we cannot go on as we are. The inquiry calls for a time limit of 28 days on immigration detention, finding the current system expensive, ineffective and unjust.

The inquirys report amounts to a forthright rejection of a focus on tinkering to make detention less harmful. It concludes that change must come as part of a wholesale change in culture, towards community models of engagement and better caseworking and decision-making.

The inquiry concluded that the United Kingdom has a proud tradition of upholding justice and the right to liberty. However, the continued use of indefinite detention puts this proud tradition at risk.

Key recommendations of the inquiry

There should be a time limit of 28 days on the length of time anyone can be detained in immigration detention.

Detention is currently used disproportionately frequently The presumption in theory and practice should be in favour of community-based resolutions and against detention.

Decisions to detain should be very rare and detention should be for the shortest possible time and only to effect removal.

The Government should learn from international best practice and introduce a much wider range of alternatives to detention than are currently used in the UK.

The inquiry panel

The inquiry was held by the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Migration and Refugees, co-chaired by Sarah Teather MP and Paul Blomfield MP. It comprised an authoritative group of mainstream Parliamentarians from right across the political spectrum, including former ministers, a former high court judge and former Chief Inspector of Prisons. The Panel holds different views on immigration policy in general, but came to a shared view that the current system of immigration detention is not working.

The need for a time limit

The inquiry echoes the Detention Forum in calling for a time limit of 28 days, noting that the UK is an outlier internationally in not having a time limit.

The inquiry found that the Home Office is failing to follow its own guidance in using detention sparingly and for the shortest possible period. Instead, the enforcement-focused culture of the Home Office leads it to detain far too many people unnecessarily and for far too long.

The lack of time limit was itself an incentive to poor case-working: the lack of any external pressure to complete cases within a set time-frame led to sloppy practice. Indeed, statistics reveal that the longer an individual is detained, the less likely it is that the persons detention will end with their removal from the UK.

Official statistics published in February 2015 reveal that 397 migrants had been detained for over 6 months at 31 December 2015, excluding those detained in prisons. 108 had been detained for over a year.

The report quotes Freed Voices spokesperson Souleymane: in prison you count your days down, but in detention you count your days up. The report cited medical evidence that the extent of mental health problems could be directly correlated to detention beyond one month. The terrible impact of indefinite detention is clearly laid out by the quotes from the many people with experience of detention who gave evidence. Indeed, Sarah Teather MPs foreword begins with the moment when a person giving evidence by telephone from Colnbrook IRC revealed that he had been detained for three years.

Alternatives to detention

The inquiry found that other countries use alternatives to detention that not only achieve high compliance rates, but they are also considerably cheaper than our current system. Rather than the traditional enforcement-based alternatives used with limited success in the UK, other countries focus on intensive engagement with individuals in community settings. The panel visited Sweden, where 76% of returns of refused asylum-seekers were voluntary in 2013, against 46% in the UK.

The Family Returns Process is an important UK precedent for detention reform. It achieved a considerable reduction in the detention of children, without negative impacts on immigration control, as most families complied with the process and there was no increase in absconding.

The Detained Fast Track asylum process (DFT)

The second key structural issue identified by the report is the DFT, on which the inquiry calls on the Government to take urgent steps.

Asylum-seekers continue to be detained on the DFT for their asylum claims to be processed, despite the finding of the High Court in Detention Action in July 2014 that the system was operating in a manner that was unlawfully unfair. The inquiry echoed the High Court in expressing concern at the impact of the inherently stressful detention environment and the fact that many individuals who are detained within the DFT are, by the Home Offices own guidance, allocated to it incorrectly.

The inquiry concludes that the DFT has become too focused on utilising detention for administrative convenience rather than speedy, high quality decision-making, reiterating its belief that detention should be a last resort and for the shortest possible time.

High security detention conditions

The inquiry panel was struck by the high security levels of IRCs, in comparison to those of other countries. The inquiry calls for an end to the use of detention in prison-like conditions of IRCs, and calls for migrants to be detained in prisons only under the most exceptional of circumstances.

Vulnerable people

The inquiry finds failings in the safeguards that should prevent the detention of survivors of torture and trafficking and people with mental health conditions, including the much-criticized Rule 35. It recommends that individuals with a mental health condition should only be detained under very exceptional circumstances.

Detention Action 2015

Leroy House Unit 3R 436 Essex Road London N1 3PQ

020 7226 3114

www.detentionaction.org.uk

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