Six months after the Brook House Inquiry published its report, the Home Secretary has responded. The response seeks to create distance from the events in 2017 that prompted the inquiry, as though it was an isolated incident, stating: “Further improvements have been made since the events of 2017 to uphold...
Staff working at Brook House immigration removal centre were verbally and physically abusive towards the people who were detained, including the use of extremely racist language. There were 19 incidents of inhuman and degrading treatment of people at a single removal centre over a period of just five months. That...
We are now in the second week of the public inquiry investigating the abuse of Brook House immigration removal centre residents in 2017. This week the inquiry will hear evidence from whistleblower Callum Tulley, whose undercover footage exposed a culture of violence and racist abuse by staff, as seen on...
The High Court has refused a challenge to the conditions at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre in 2017 on all grounds. This is despite the Home Office having made a number of changes to the regime provided by G4S since then in response to criticism. The decision in R (Soltany)...
The Home Secretary has conceded that the investigation into abuse at Brook House immigration removal centre will now be a full public inquiry. The announcement follows a High Court decision in June 2019 that an ombudsman’s report was insufficient under human rights law. Lawyers for the victims welcomed the news, but...
An investigation into abuse at Brook House immigration removal centre has castigated those in charge of the privately run detention centre. The report, commissioned by outsourcing firm G4S following an exposé by the BBC’s Panorama programme last year, concludes that Brook House is afflicted with incompetent management, poor facilities and chronic understaffing....
The Home Office has agreed to ask the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) to carry out an investigation into the abuse of migrants held at Brook House detention centre. The decision has been described as a “major U-turn” by Duncan Lewis Solicitors, which says the department conceded the investigation...
The latest of what seems a neverending series reports of abuse of detainees in immigration removal centres has come to light. BBC Panorama took undercover footage at Brook House and uncovered the following, amongst other evidence of chaos and incompetence: G4S officers assaulting, abusing and mocking detainees; Asylum seekers being...
As the government’s Rwanda plan continues to court controversy, there is one area of their policy which by their measures could be seen to be succeeding: their efforts to stop Albanians from seeking refuge in the UK. Since 2019, the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit at Islington Law Centre...
The Home Office has conceded a judicial review and accepted that the ‘Detention Services Order 04/2020: Mental Vulnerability and Immigration Detention‘ was not operating effectively or as intended in ‘certain cases’, particularly in cases where there are concerns about a detained individual’s ability to make immigration related decisions. The concession...
This article provides an overview of some of the safeguards available for those who are held in immigration detention, focussing particularly on those who have been victims of torture. These safeguards are all the more important following the expansion of detention powers under section 12 of the Illegal Migration Act....
The Home Secretary has conceded the claims of two former immigration detainees relating to a power outage at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC), a detention centre next to Heathrow airport. The Home Secretary not only paid both claimants substantial amounts in damages for unlawfully detaining them, but also declared that...
Britain has a proud history of welcoming refugees. It also has a shameful history of hostility to refugees. Often exactly the same refugees at the same time. As with all real life and real history — as opposed to more transparently ideologically driven accounts — it is a complex story....
Our September roundup is here, featuring the latest statement of changes and new parts of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 being brought into force. We also discuss the Brook House inquiry, the Rwanda litigation, new immigration fees and illegal working fines and have an impromptu book club. If you listen...
This month Sonia and Colin cover the latest statement of changes, new parts of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 being brought into force, the Brook House inquiry, the Rwanda litigation, new immigration fees and illegal working fines. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and...
Anyone who is liable to detention may be granted immigration bail. They may be released or allowed to live outside of detention, subject to certain conditions. Bail is granted by either the Secretary of State or the First-tier Tribunal. The main difference is that the Secretary of State may grant...
Yesterday, the third annual inspection from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) of ‘Adults at risk in immigration detention’ was published. On the same day, the Home Secretary discontinued the standing commission for this annual review. The report focuses specifically on the efficiency and effectiveness of Rule...
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Rule 35 safeguarding process, designed to identify vulnerable detainees for release. The research comes...
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This is where we keep tabs on changes to UK immigration laws, rules and procedures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been trying to keep this post continually up to date rather than covering new coronavirus developments as separate blog posts that may become rapidly out of date. Material...
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Inspectors observing a Home Office charter flight taking asylum seekers to France and Germany have found that coronavirus precautions were not followed. The report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons also found that pain was deliberately inflicted on three highly distressed people, although it was unable to say whether the use...
The Home Office is planning to outsource asylum interviews to commercial contractors. A pilot programme designed to address the mounting backlog of asylum claims will see private outsourcing firms conduct interviews with often vulnerable asylum seekers. Refugee charities are likely to oppose the move, which was unveiled yesterday in a...
Data about the operation of Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules brought into the public domain by a Freedom of Information request lays bare the inadequacies of the current system for reporting vulnerabilities among immigration detainees. The data, obtained by Lewis Kett of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, demonstrates that Rule...
Outsourcing firm Serco is to take over two immigration removal centres run by rival G4S, the Home Office has announced. The Hampshire-headquartered company, which already runs the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre, will take over Brook House and Tinsley House from May 2020. The contract runs until 2028, with an...
This month we explain the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision in Hemmati as well as recent developments in asylum and trafficking. The DeSouza case on the Good Friday Agreement has been reported by the Upper Tribunal, along with a bunch of procedural cases. Finally, we look at the latest in deportation law from...
Welcome to episode 71 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we explain the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision in Hemmati as well as recent developments in asylum and trafficking. The DeSouza case on the Good Friday Agreement has been reported by the Upper Tribunal, along with...
All eyes were on Birmingham yesterday for the launch of the Labour Party’s manifesto. Billed as “radical” by Jeremy Corbyn, its stated purpose is to offer “real change” and to build a fairer Britain. But this sense of radicalism does not wholly extend to Labour’s immigration policy. Those who were...
Financial condition supporters are put forward as potential guarantors that a person will answer their bail. In the B1 bail application form they are referred to by the plain English term “supporters” rather than the old terms “sureties” or, in Scotland, “cautioners”. Sometimes detainees will say they cannot apply for...
Applications to the First-tier Tribunal are made on the B1 bail form. There is no fee (the application is free to submit). Part 5 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Rules 2014 (SI 2014 No. 2604 (L. 31)) sets out the Tribunal’s own rules for bail...
When a person is detained the Secretary of State can grant bail of his own volition through an immigration officer or otherwise the person can make a bail application to an immigration judge in the First-tier Tribunal. There are some limited situations where a judge in another court might consider...
A proposed inquiry into the now infamous abuse of migrants at Brook House detention centre does not go far enough, a High Court judge has ruled. In a judgment handed down today, Mrs Justice May held that an underpowered Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigation was not sufficient under human rights...
The Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into immigration detention has released its report which strongly censures “every part of the immigration detention system”. The inquiry was initially triggered in response to the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ programme which uncovered shocking abuse in Brook House immigration removal centre. Preceded by two reports from...
A “virtual tour” of the immigration detention estate, which promises to shine a spotlight on the hidden world of immigration detention, launched last week and runs until 18 December. The Unlocking Detention campaign uses social media to bring the UK’s immigration removal centres to public attention. Welcome to #Unlocked18 week 2,...
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott delivered a speech today on what Labour in government would do about immigration. It doesn’t do to get too excited about these pronouncements, because Labour is not in government, but here is a link to the full text and a few highlights. Labour wants to...
Today the government published a follow-up report by Stephen Shaw on its progress in implementing his 2016 recommendations on detaining vulnerable people. The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, also announced a series of reforms including a pilot of mandatory bail hearings after two months. The original Shaw Review, back in 2016, had...
The Home Affairs Committee of MPs has announced that it is broadening an existing enquiry into the treatment of migrants held at Brook House detention centre to look at the detention system more widely. The influential committee, which is headed up by Labour heavyweight Yvette Cooper, said on Friday afternoon...
The independent prison inspector has raised the alarm over the continued detention of migrants who the Home Office accepts have been tortured. A scathing inspection report also found “considerable failings” in safety and respect for detainees at the “prison-like” Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke,...
On 1 February 2018, the High Court decided that the Home Secretary had discriminated against two Muslim men as a result of conditions at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre. For the immediate reaction to this case, this news piece by the BBC is worth reading, but we have only just...
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has begun a judicial review challenge aimed at G4S, the controversial private company that runs two of the UK’s immigration detention centres. The charity aims to have G4S officially branded a “High Risk” supplier by the government in an effort to hold the outsourcing giant...
