The Jesuit Refugee Service has launched a new report criticising refugee detention. According to “After Brook House: continued abuse in immigration detention” patterns of mistreatment detailed by a high-profile independent inquiry into Brook House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport eight months ago remain ongoing.
The report draws on a workshop and interviews with men and women detained within the last year at various immigration detention centres. Key findings indicate that detained refugees find that immigration detention feels like prison. They report deficiencies in healthcare provision, including failure to provide necessary medicine and claims that staff ignore medical emergencies. They say safeguards for vulnerable people are largely absent and where they exist do not work and that vulnerable people are routinely kept in detention.
Sarah Teather, JRS UK’s director, said: “Immigration detention has destroyed too many lives, it must not be allowed to continue. It is beyond time to end the use of detention for immigration control.”
Refugees report that force is used inappropriately and often gratuitously, against detained people. They claim there is a culture of abuse and humiliation within detention centres and in the practices of detaining people and moving detained people. Long and indefinite detention was found to be especially harmful.
JRS UK recommends the end of detention for the purpose of immigration control and the introduction of a mandatory time limit of no more than 28 days for all those detained under immigration powers. JRS called for the recommendations of the Brook House inquiry, from September last year, to be accepted and implemented. JRS also called for the repeal of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the rejection of the expansion of detention powers.
Naomi Blackwell, JRS UK detention outreach manager, said: “Working with people held in detention, we see how badly it affects them. Time and again, you watch a person's mental health deteriorate. And often, these are people who have already undergone torture, trafficking, or other serious traumas. Nothing has changed since the events at Brook House came to light. It really needs to change now.”
JRS UK will hold a webinar to share the research on Tuesday 14 May at 5.30pm. To read the report, sign up for the webinar, or find out more ways you can take action, see: www.jrsuk.net/after-brook-house-report.
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