Home Office systematically ignores medical advice to keep mentally ill immigrants in detention (Independent) (27 November 2017)

Toufique Hossain, Immigration and Public Law Director at Duncan Lewis, is quoted in The Independent discussing the Home Office’s detention of mentally ill immigrants, which is in direct contradiction to the Adults at Risk policy intended to protect vulnerable immigrants from the trauma of detention. The Independent highlights the research conducted by charity Bail for Immigrant Detainees (BID) which has found many mentally unwell detainees have been held in Immigration Detention Centres against policy guidelines. Toufique hopes that the BID report will help set the record straight in defining those who are vulnerable and should not be detained. Toufique is quoted: “It has been clear since the Adults at Risk policy was introduced, supposedly as a response to the damning Shaw Report, that it is simply not fit for purpose…The policy has given the Home Office further justification to detain vulnerable individuals; including victims of torture, rape, trafficking and those with serious physical and mental health issues. We have represented dozens of men and women who should never have been detained.”