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Immigration Solicitors

Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre now “of national concern” (12 August 2015)

Date: 12/08/2015
Duncan Lewis, Immigration Solicitors, Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre now “of national concern”

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick has said Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre in Bedfordshire is failing vulnerable women.

BBC News reports that the prison watchdog has said conditions at Yarl’s Wood have deteriorated – and concerns raised showed women and pregnant women should only be detained “as a last resort”.

Mr Hardwick said that Yarl’s Wood is now a “place of national concern” over the conditions women detainees are being held in.

Mr Hardwick's report also suggests that conditions have become much worse at the immigration detention centre since inspectors visited two years ago.

More than half of the detainees surveyed at Yarl’s Wood said they felt “unsafe”, inspectors found.

Mr Hardwick said that – while a total of 443 women held at the centre were removed from the UK in the six months before the inspection – just over twice that number were released back into the community.

Of the 99 pregnant women held at Yarl's Wood last year, just nine were removed from the UK.

Inspectors also found that 15 detainees had been held for between six months and a year – while four had been detained for more than a year.

The prisoner who had been detained for the longest period had been held for 17 months at Yarl’s Wood. Mr Hardwick has called for a strict time limit on the length of time prisoners can be held.

"Yarl's Wood is rightly a place of national concern,” he said.

“While there have been instances of unacceptable individual behaviour, most staff work hard to mitigate the worst effects of detention – and women told us they appreciated this.
“These are issues that need to be addressed at a policy and strategic management level,” Mr Hardwick added.

“We have raised many of the concerns in this report before.
“Decisive action is needed to ensure that women are only detained as a last resort.

“Other well-respected bodies have recently called for time limits on administrative detention – and the concerns we have identified provide strong support for these calls.”
A spokesman for the Home Office said:

“A number of the findings in this report are extremely disappointing.

“Working with our partners, we want to make sure standards in the centre improve – especially regarding the provision and delivery of healthcare.

"We are committed to treating all detainees with dignity and respect.

“We aim to protect the health and wellbeing of those we are detaining at all times – so we are pleased that this report finds that 80% of detainees surveyed said staff treated them with respect.”

Emma Ginn from the charity Medical Justice said:
“Immigration removal centres are dangerous places for many vulnerable detainees.

“They should be closed on health grounds while a comprehensive and independent investigation is carried out.”
Jerome Phelps from campaign group Detention Action added:
“It is high time for the government to step away from the routine detention of migrants – and instead to work with them to resolve their immigration cases in the community wherever possible.”

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