HM Inspectorate of Prisons has today published a report about Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

Produced following an unannounced inspection of the immigration centre in June 2017, the report has highlighted certain areas of improvement since the previous report though a number of areas of serious concern remain.

You can read the report in full here.

Reacting to this report, Dr Lisa Doyle, Director of Advocacy at the Refugee Council, said:

“While it is encouraging that there have been certain improvements to the service delivered at Yarl’s Wood, this report overwhelmingly serves as a terrible reminder of how deplorable detention is.

“Thousands of people, including children, are detained arbitrarily in the UK every year, simply on the say-so of government officials. People are not locked up to punish them for committing a crime and this terrifying, humiliating experience can have a hugely damaging impact on their mental and physical health.

“This report has found that as many as 70% of women detained at Yarl’s Wood are released back into the community, meaning that not even the Home Office could justify curtailing their freedom. Detention should play no part in the asylum system and it must end now.”