Patrick Page, senior caseworker in public law at Duncan Lewis, speaks at conferences at SOAS and at the Open University (26 June 2018)

19 June, SOAS University: Empathy in Practice

On 19th June, Patrick Page, a Senior Caseworker in the Public Law team in Harrow spoke on the keynote panel at a SOAS conference on ‘Empathy in Practice’. He shared the panel with Juliet Mabey, the founder of Oneworld Publications, and David Francis, a PhD student at the British Museum. Patrick spoke about his work exposing the indignity of immigration detention, and criticised the lack of empathy shown by detention officers, Home Office caseworkers and national leaders towards those who are detained.

Focusing in particular on the use of de-humanising language such as ‘swarms’, ‘bunch [of migrants]’ (David Cameron) and ‘illegals’ (Amber Rudd), Patrick noted the danger of simply defining detained men and women by what has happened to them (‘detainees/victims’).

Patrick also discussed the limits to which empathy should be considered a positive and productive factor in the field, suggesting that if practitioners rely solely on empathy for their motivation in this work, then they may have unconscious bias against individuals whose background may be harder to empathise with, and thus fail to represent those individuals with the same diligence and professionalism. He also warned of the dangers of secondary trauma in working in this field, which can result from strong feelings of empathy with clients, and stressed the urgent need for professional guidance and support on this issue.

21 June, Open University: Refuge or Detention

Later in the week, on 21st June, Patrick joined a panel discussion in Milton Keynes on the topic 'Refuge or detention? Challenging the hostile reception of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK’. In this event, he spoke alongside Joanne Vincett of the Open University and Yarl's Wood Befrienders, and a former detainee from Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. The discussion was chaired by Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo, of the Open University and MK Community Foundation. Patrick spoke about the injustices of detention, including the failure of the safeguarding mechanisms in detention such as the Adults at Risk policy and Rule 35; the huge cost of detention; the fact that detention centres are brutalising places; and even by the government’s stated purpose for detention, the system is a failure since the majority of asylum-seekers detained are released back into the community rather than being removed from the UK.

Patrick suggested that the use of immigration detention comes down to the state-sponsored de-humanisation of those perceived to be ‘other’ as well as the abuse, and corruptive nature, of power. In his final comments Patrick quoted experts-by-experience who have contributed to the Voices of Action series in No Walls (the blog run by the public law department of Duncan Lewis) who argue that those fighting the hostile environment and immigration detention should not give up; that we need to both expose the unjustifiable human suffering of detention and, warning against the liberal echo-chamber, methodically set out the cold hard facts which expose the system as expensive and ineffective.

Patrick Page is a senior caseworker in the Immigration and Public Law department at Duncan Lewis, committed to challenging and exposing the unlawful and inhumane treatment of asylum-seekers at the hands of the Home Office. He has written extensively on a range of matters concerning human rights, asylum and immigration law for The Guardian, The Independent, The Huffington Post, The Canary and on the Liberty and Duncan Lewis websites. Patrick is also editor for the newly established ‘No Walls’, an open forum dedicated to discussions on human rights and refugee issues, hosted and run by the Duncan Lewis Public Law Department.

Please contact Patrick on patrickp@duncanlewis.com or 020 3114 1337.

Duncan Lewis Public Law Solicitors

The Duncan Lewis Public Law department continues to be recommended by Legal 500 for its depth of experience in immigration and civil liberties challenges and is acknowledged as having a "stellar reputation in handling test cases". The Legal 500 2017 edition applauds Duncan Lewis for its specialism in judicial review and Court of Appeal cases.

Our solicitors carry out both publicly and privately funded work with extensive experience in all aspects of judicial review claimant matters, including obtaining emergency orders and other interim relief to prevent breaches of human rights, following up judicial reviews with actions for damages in both the County and High Court and successfully pursuing judicial review matters to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

To speak to an expert in your public law matter, call 0333 772 0409.