History > 2007 > UK > Immigration (I)
 

Self-harm soars among detainees

Report claims overcrowding and staff abuse
are driving asylum seekers to desperate behaviour

Sunday May 20, 2007
The Observer
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor

Hunger strikes, rioting and self-harm are now endemic in Britain's biggest detention centres as detainees become increasingly desperate about living in what they claim are deteriorating conditions.

At Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, more than 100 women are refusing to eat, and there have been recent reports of major disturbances at Lindholme, South Yorkshire, and at Colnbrook in Middlesex.

Self-harm is particularly acute at Yarl's Wood, which reopened in September 2003 after half of it was gutted by fire during rioting in February 2002. It now houses hundreds of women, many of whom have attempted to claim asylum in Britain after fleeing war zones.

Amid growing concern over Britain's overstretched asylum system, the campaign group Liberty will call tomorrow for the Home Secretary, John Reid, to order a public inquiry into the large-scale riot at Harmondsworth detention centre in west London last November.

If Reid refuses, the group says that it intends to seek a judicial review of his decision on behalf of seven detainees it is representing - an unprecedented move that would see Britain's immigration system placed under scrutiny in the courts.

'Well-documented abuses at Harmondsworth detention centre sparked the disturbance in November,' said Liberty's legal officer, Alex Gask. 'These men deserve a public inquiry into the ill-treatment they faced; anything less could result in legal action.'

The deteriorating situation in the detention centres has sparked a surge in self-harm, according to campaigners. Every other day detainees harm themselves to such a serious degree that they require medical treatment, according to the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns. Between April 2006 and March 2007 there were 199 attempts to self-harm that required medical treatment.

An investigation last year into conditions at Yarl's Wood found 70 per cent of women at the centre had reported rape, nearly half had been detained for more than three months and 57 per cent had no legal representation.

Conditions have not improved, according to campaigners. Assaults are said to be commonplace. One woman was stripped and thrown naked into a van taking her to the airport for deportation only for the pilot to refuse to allow her to fly as she had no clothes.

The women also allege staff regularly refer to them as 'black monkey', 'nigger' and 'bitch'. They claim vital faxes from solicitors are going missing and information on basic legal rights is being withheld. Detainees also complain they are given days-old reheated food in which they have found hair, dirt and maggots.

Campaigners are also concerned about conditions at Harmondsworth, where detainees rioted after being banned from watching news coverage of a damning report on the centre.

The Liberty report, to be published tomorrow, contains a clutch of testimonies from detainees about the conditions in Harmondsworth before the riots. One man interviewed for the study told how he was taken to the centre's medical clinic suffering from a bad back. 'They just abandoned me,' the man said. 'There was no doctor and, when I asked where the doctor was, the detention officers laughed at me ... One of them stepped on the hem of my trousers to make me fall over. He then started laughing and called me a "fucking negro".'

Solitary confinement as a punishment for speaking out at Harmondsworth is common, according to Liberty. 'If we made a complaint we would be given a warning,' one man known as 'K' told Liberty. 'If we were given three warnings, we would be put in an isolated cell. We were scared of making complaints against officers because we expected to be treated badly if we did. We were treated like pigs and very unfairly, as if we were serious criminals.'

A spokesman for Kalyx, which runs Harmondsworth, declined to comment. Serco, which took over Yarl's Wood on 26 April, denied conditions had deteriorated and said that many of the detainees' original concerns had been addressed.

A Serco spokesman said staff had been praised by the prisons inspector for their good relationship with detainees. 'We take any complaints seriously,' he said.

Self-harm soars among detainees, O, 20.5.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2083892,00.html

1.45pm

Violence flares at asylum centre

Wednesday March 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Nine people were taken to hospital today after a disturbance broke out at a privately-run immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire.

Police, fire and ambulance teams were called to the Campsfield House immigration removal centre in Kidlington after trouble broke out shortly before 7am this morning.

A Home Office spokesman said seven immigration staff at the centre and two detainees were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out.

He said prison officers specially equipped to deal with riots had been deployed to the centre and were working to get it under control. The fire has now been put out.

"The perimeter of Campsfield has not been breached and all detainees have been accounted for," he added. He said it was too early to assess the amount of damage to the centre.

Bill MacKeith, one of the organisers of the Campaign to Close Campsfield protest group, said he understood that the incident had been triggered by the "violent" removal of a detainee.

He said: "That's a very likely scenario because it has happened before. In June 1994, there was a revolt at Campsfield when an Algerian detainee was violently removed.

"The number of cases taken out against guards for violence against detainees are increasing."

Mr MacKeith said the main grievance at the centre was that people were being detained without being convicted of any crime. "Every single person in there will have a story of injustice to tell," he said.

The local Liberal Democrat MP, Evan Harris, said he was seeking urgent information from the Home Office.

He said: "This is very worrying, especially given the history of disturbances at Campsfield House, and continued allegations and complaints of poor treatment of detainees."

The shadow immigration minister, Damian Green, said the disturbances showed that detention centres had become "less safe" since John Reid became home secretary.

The centre, which opened in 1993, holds 200 men, including failed asylum seekers and those awaiting deportation. The US-owned company GEO began a three-year contract to run the centre in September last year.

The last report on Campsfield by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, in 2004, gave it a largely clean bill of health but it is unclear how much the regime has changed since GEO took over.

The disturbance comes just over five years after a riot destroyed half of the government's flagship detention centre at Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, causing millions of pounds worth of damage.

Violence flares at asylum centre, G, 14.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,2033734,00.html