Outside the Rules: How Immigration Detainees in Prison Are Let Down

Posted on November 20, 2017, 6:04 pm By krh

Unlike those held in Immigration Removal Centres (IRC’s), immigration detainees in prison are not permitted a mobile phone or internet access and face significant obstacles accessing lawyers, charities, and Home Office caseworkers. And if that isn’t bad enough, immigration detainees in prison are also denied the basic safeguards afforded to those in IRC’s. The safeguards, found in the Detention Centre Rules are crucial in preventing vulnerable people from being held in detention.

Rule 35 is especially important. Under this rule, doctors are required to assess whether a detainee is particularly vulnerable in detention, and to send a report of the assessment to the Home Office. The doctors look especially at special illnesses and conditions, including mental health issues as well as a history of torture, sexual abuse or trafficking. These reports can either result in the Home Office taking the initiative to release the individual, or can help lawyers obtain both release and compensation on the basis that they were unlawfully detained.

Read more: Duncan Lewis, http://bit.ly/2z44joe

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Edited by David Herd & Anna Pincus

Featuring Shami Chakrabarti, Kyon Ferril, Christy Lefteri, Robert Macfarlane, Khodadad Mohammadi, Dina Nayeri, Amy Sackville, Philippe Sands, Rachel Seiffert, Natalia Sierra, Bidisha SK Mamata, Simon Smith & Maurizio Veglio

Seventy years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UK is guilty of undermining the very principles of asylum, inhumanely detaining those seeking protection and ushering in sweeping changes that threaten to punish refugees at every turn.

But the UK’s immigration system is not alone in committing such breaches of human rights. The fourth volume of Refugee Tales explores our present international environment, combining author re-tellings with first-hand accounts of individuals who have been detained across the world.

As the coronavirus pandemic defies borders – leaving those who are detained even more vulnerable – this collection shares stories spanning Canada, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and calls for international insistence on a future without detention.

Featuring a prologue by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.

You can order a copy here

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