Refugee Week Blog

Subjecting someone to a period of indefinite detention contrasts utterly with the principles and protections afforded by the right to seek refuge under international refugee law.

In the UK, the incarceration of those fleeing war, violence and persecution is justified as necessary for a working immigration system.

It doesn’t matter what your immigration status is or your reason for being detained – no one should be detained indefinitely for administrative convenience of the Home Office. Reasons for migration are complex and often overlapping. Everyone has a right to liberty.

It’s absolutely crucial that in pushing for and working towards change, we uphold this absolute principle that indefinite immigration detention is not justifiable for any person.

The guidelines around immigration detention say that it must be for the shortest time possible and only when there is a realistic possibility that someone will soon be removed from the UK.

However, the UK relies on and utilises detention in asylum procedures more frequently than in other countries in the EU and the use of detention here is routine. In 2017, over 27,331 individuals entered immigration detention, of which approximately 50% will have claimed asylum at some point.

Many people are detained after they have been refused asylum but are attempting to appeal the decision of the Home Office. Others claim asylum after they are detained. Either way, asylum-detainees are often particularly at risk.

The very nature of the circumstances that lead to someone seeking asylum mean it is very likely that they will have experienced trauma.

85% of those who Women For Refugee Women spoke to in detention said they were survivors of sexual or gender-based violence. The UK also continues to lock up survivors of torture and those with other vulnerabilities.

We know that experiences of trauma and related mental health issues are compounded in detention. The ongoing threat of being re-detained follows many after they are released back into the community. New Immigration Bail procedures mean that those without status are told that they are at risk of being detained if they break bail conditions, so even when not detained this is a threat people are living with.

While we in Britain see the separation of children from their families at the US-Mexico border as barbaric and cruel, children are detained and families are separated by immigration detention in the UK as well.

Immigration and asylum systems that are based on support and engagement are cheaper, more effective and much more humane than those that rely on enforcement and detention.

This #WorldRefugeeDay let’s remember everyone detained indefinitely inside the UK’s immigration detention estate.