There are ten detention centres around the country, run on behalf of the Home Office by private companies or the Prison Service. Immigration detention is used to detain asylum seekers while their case is being decided (known as ‘detained fast track’), and to detain and forcibly remove people from the UK if their asylum claim is not successful. About 75% of detainees are men, with three centres also holding women and children. Most people in detention have claimed asylum at some stage (about 80%) although the centres are also used for other migrants and people who have completed a prison sentence in the UK and are due to be deported.
The use of detention in the UK has increased in the last ten years and there are many concerns about whether detention is used fairly and proportionately. There is no time limit on detention and there is no need for detention to be sanctioned by a court – asylum seekers, including families with children, can be deprived of their liberty for indefinite periods on the say so of an immigration officer. Detention rules say that detention should be for the shortest possible period, and that torture survivors, those with serious health problems, and heavily pregnant women should not normally be detained. But there is evidence from detainees themselves, and from organisations supporting them, that the rules are not followed.
Many people spend months locked up, with serious implications for their physical and mental health. Many have outstanding legal issues in their cases, and are detained even though it is not safe to remove them from the UK. For example, people from Iraq and Zimbabwe have been detained for months even though there is no safe return to those countries.
The Refugee Council is particularly concerned about the detention of families and has campaigned for an end to the use of detention for children. We are opposed to the use of detention to ‘fast track’ an asylum claim as the speed of the process makes it impossible to get a fair hearing. We are also very concerned about detainees’ ability to access legal representation. The right to challenge detention through the courts exists, but for many this is impossible without a lawyer. We are lobbying on these three key issues – detention of children, fast track and access to lawyers, and continue to press the government to find humane and proportionate alternatives to detention.
Refugee Council provides welfare support to detainees at Oakington detention centre and we use evidence from our work there to push for changes in detention policy and practice.
 | | "Being an asylum [seeker] here it’s like I’m not existing." Yeukai, Zimbabwe
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