Britain should not put LGBT+ asylum seekers in immigration detention centres where they risk being abused and harassed by staff and other detainees, lawmakers said on Thursday.
Gay and transgender people are often traumatised after fleeing persecution back home, said the Home Affairs Committee, whose inquiry was prompted by a scandal over abuse of detainees by staff in one centre where self-harm and suicide attempts were widespread.
"The Government should recognise that LGBTQI people are vulnerable in immigration detention, thereby extending the recognition that it already affords to trans and intersex people," the committee's report said.
Britain has not routinely detained transgender and intersex immigrants since 2016, as it deems them to be "at risk" of harm. Read more via Openly
Summary
Detaining an individual for the purpose of immigration control is a deprivation of that person’s liberty. The Government has a responsibility to use it sparingly, and for the shortest period possible. The power to detain can sometimes be necessary but should be used only if there are no other options, as a last resort prior to removal.
Detention powers are governed by processes set out in policy and guidance, which include directions on the power to detain, the decision and authority to detain, and detention procedures. This policy and guidance is too often not being followed.
Our inquiry was prompted by the exposure of appalling physical and verbal abuse of detainees by some staff at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in 2017 and by persistent reports of the inappropriate use of immigration detention and its damaging effect on the mental health and wellbeing of detainees.
Over the course of our inquiry, we have found serious problems with almost every element of the immigration detention system. People are being wrongfully detained, held in immigration detention when they are vulnerable and detained for too long.
Immigration officials who are tasked with detaining and removing people from the UK face making difficult decisions on a daily basis. But too often the Home Office has shown a shockingly cavalier attitude to the deprivation of human liberty and the protection of people’s basic rights. It needs to be more transparent in collating information about the number of people who are wrongfully detained, it must give evidenced explanations as to why decisions to detain have been made and it needs to admit where things have gone wrong, apologise, and seek to learn lessons.
Above all, it must do much more to ensure that all reasonable alternatives to detention have been considered before detention is authorised.
Our inquiry identified a weak administrative process and a serious lack of judicial oversight of the decision to detain. Decisions to hold an individual in immigration detention are taken by Home Office officials and not by a Judge or court, and immigration detention is overseen by the Immigration Enforcement directorate in the Home Office. In this process, there is no thorough pre-detention screening of individuals and other than in asylum interviews there is no face to face contact between immigration decision-makers and the detainee. As a result, in the immigration system, people can be deprived of their liberty through an entirely paper-based exercise by officials where no one involved in the decision ever interviews the potential detainee. Moreover, there is no requirement in UK law for those decisions to be subject to judicial oversight within a certain period after a detention order is made. This has to change. In the UK, there is no limit on the length of time for which someone can be held in immigration detention.
Our inquiry has found that Home Office caseworking inefficiencies—for example lengthy delays in asylum decisions, appeals and documentation—unnecessarily prolong individuals’ detention. Evidence from a multitude of experts shows the harm that immigration detention inflicts on the detainee’s mental health and well-being. Read the full report