An official report on Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC)in the UK has found "considerable failings" and a lack of adequate services for the treatment of vulnerabilities at the facility., according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).
An recent official report by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a pan-European alliance of 90 NGOs working in rights protection, has found that the main migrant detention facility in the United Kingdom is not meeting adequate standards. Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC) was found to have "considerable failings," including detention of victims of torture, lack of mental health provision and excessive periods of detention.
Lack of protection
The report was published following an inspection of the facility by Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, and was also based on interviews with hundreds of staff and detainees.
Inspectors found that in 9 out of 10 sample cases, the Home Office accepted evidence that the detainee had been tortured, but continued their detention regardless. The report also highlighted a lack of safeguarding, particularly for detainees with mental health problems. The absence of a time limit on detention also led to some men being held for excessively long periods; 23 men had been held for over a year and one man had been held for over 4.5 years.
A large proportion of detainees reported feeling unsafe due to the uncertainty of their cases and high levels of stress, anger and mental health issues among other detainees.
Pressure on the authorities to change the system
An earlier report, in 2015, had highlighted 58 recommendations for improvements at Hardmondsworth, of which 37 had not been addressed. Some areas had deteriorated. The release of the new report adds to increasing pressure from politicians and civil society
for an end to indefinite detention
.
Jesuit Refugee Service UK Director, Sarah Teathersaid, "This report once again reveals the cruelty of the detention system, a system which incarcerates many who are already acknowledged to be vulnerable." At Yarl's Wood IRC, over 100 women are now in their third week of a hunger strike, demanding an end to indefinite detention and forced repatriation. (Migrants protest on Parliament Square in central London, Britain. Credit: EPA/ANDY RAIN)