All Articles: Detention
Medico-legal reports: how to instruct and common mistakes to avoid
Here, we look at the practicalities involved in getting a good medico-legal report. We have previously explained what a medico-legal report is and that article should be read alongside this one. These reports can be a game changer in cases involving v ...
24th October 2023Brook House: racist, violent and dangerous
Staff working at Brook House immigration removal centre were verbally and physically abusive towards the people who were detained, including the use of extremely racist language. There were 19 incidents of inhuman and degrading treatment of people at ...
20th September 2023Scottish inquiry finds immigration detention centre death was avoidable
A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry has held that a number of defects in the system of working in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre led to the death of a 54-year old Chinese man which could have reasonably been avoided. A Fatal Accident Inquiry, simil ...
15th June 2023The latest policy on reporting conditions
In January this year, the Home Office updated its guidance on reporting conditions, again. Version 6 was published on 19 January 2023, replacing version 5 which was in place for less than six months, from 30 June 2022. Version 5 Version 5 was very muc ...
23rd May 2023Detention provisions in the Illegal Migration Bill
As the House of Common’s second reading of the Illegal Migration Bill takes place today, this post looks at the detention provisions in clauses 11-14 and what they mean for individuals arriving in the UK. You can read Colin’s analysis of the Bill ...
13th March 2023Legal challenges against GPS tagging for people on immigration bail
This post provides an update on legal challenges to the Home Office’s policy and practice of requiring people on immigration bail to wear Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. You can read more about the policy and the legal framework here and he ...
10th March 2023Adults at risk in immigration detention annual report scrapped after highlighting inadequacies
Yesterday, the third annual inspection from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) of ‘Adults at risk in immigration detention’ was published. On the same day, the Home Secretary discontinued the standing commission for ...
13th January 2023What are ‘short term holding facilities’ like the Manston refugee camp?
A new report has been published this morning by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on the controversial short term holding facility for refugees at Manston in Kent. The inspection took place in late July 2022, before the current Home Secretary, Suella Brav ...
1st November 2022GPS tagging of foreign offenders “not yet achieving its aims”
The electronic monitoring of foreign national offenders is riddled with flaws which can be traced back to Home Office underfunding and inefficiency, an independent report has found. The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Neal, says the ...
14th July 2022£17,500 awarded for 40 days of unlawful detention during the pandemic
In R (Abulbakr) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1183 (Admin), the High Court has ordered the Home Office to pay a detainee £17,500 for 40 days of unlawful detention caused by unreasonable delay in providing a release address. ...
12th July 2022Home Office has no power to vary High Court bail conditions
In R (BVN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1159 (Admin) the High Court has confirmed that the Secretary of State has no power to interfere with the conditions attached to a grant of High Court bail. It is an unusual issue and ...
23rd May 2022Damning report finds “systemic failures” of detention centres to identify harm
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Ru ...
4th May 2022Telephone reporting for people on immigration bail
From April 2022 the Home Office has moved to using telephone reporting as a mainstream reporting alternative. This follows on from changes implemented on an emergency basis during the pandemic lockdown and sustained lobbying by migrants rights groups. ...
3rd May 2022Afghan refugee detained for 98 days wins High Court false imprisonment appeal
Ali v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 866 (QB) is a successful appeal against the Central London County Court’s decision to dismiss the false imprisonment claim of a recognised Afghan refugee, detained for 98 days under the Detained Fast Track proc ...
21st April 2022Mandatory GPS tagging for people on immigration bail
Last August, the provisions in Schedule 10 of the Immigration Act 2016 providing for foreign national offenders liable to deportation to be subject to mandatory tagging as a condition of immigration bail were commenced. This provision was designed to ...
21st February 2022Detention age assessment policy tightened
On 7 February 2022 the Home Office updated Detention Services Order 02/2019 on Care and management of Post Detention Age claims. This policy sets out the approach to age dispute cases in immigration detention and applies to Home Office staff and its c ...
15th February 2022High Court dismisses concerns about legal aid in detention centres
The High Court has thrown out a challenge arguing that the free legal advice given to migrants in detention centres is rubbish. Mr Justice Calver held that statistical evidence that many legal aid firms provide a poor service was unreliable and that & ...
18th January 2022Home Office immigration bail powers upheld
In Kaitey v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1875 the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that the power to set immigration bail exists even when a person cannot be lawfully detained. As Alex commented at t ...
14th December 2021One month a reasonable time to source bail accommodation during pandemic
In R (Babbage) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2995 (Admin), the High Court found that a person with an extensive offending and adverse immigration history who posed high risks of re-offending and absconding was unlawfully det ...
18th November 2021Progress stalls on vulnerable immigration detainees
On 21 October 2021 the Home Office published the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s (ICIBI) second annual inspection of the Adults at Risk policy, alongside its response. The report itself is an impressive piece of work and pro ...
28th October 2021Government must obey court orders even if invalid, Supreme Court holds
The Supreme Court has this morning handed down judgment in R (Majera) (formerly SM Rwanda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 46. The appeal, as Lord Reed states in his opening sentence, raised a “question of constitutional ...
20th October 2021Systems failure denied immigration detainee his HIV meds, judge finds
The Home Office has been found in breach of its legal duty to protect HIV patients in its custody after officials left a Congolese man without his daily medication for several days. In what Mr Justice Bourne described as an “unedifying” sp ...
2nd August 2021Non-Europeans can be detained for longer, EU Court of Justice decides
An eight-month detention period for EU citizens is disproportionate, the Court of Justice of the European Union has decided. The case is C-718/19 Ordre des barreaux francophones and germanophone and Others. The case originated in the Belgian courts. L ...
25th June 2021The Glasgow immigration raid was arbitrary: as are all such raids
From the outside looking in, initial immigration enforcement decisions like that in Glasgow last week to detain a person often seem opportunistic and random rather than strategic. The result is that the ‘wrong’ people end up being detained. We kno ...
16th May 2021Congolese man unlawfully detained for three and a half years
To a person in detention, particularly in prison, every day of freedom lost matters and the Defendant needs to be able to justify it. In this case I think that principle became lost to sight. So says the High Court in the case of Louis v Home Office [ ...
10th May 2021Lack of Rule 35 process in prisons is unlawful, Court of Appeal finds
The judgment of the Court of Appeal in MR (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for Justice & Others [2021] EWCA Civ 541 marks a major step forward in the battle over the use of immigration detention in prisons. The court has decided that the absence of ...
19th April 2021System for investigating deaths in immigration detention declared unlawful
In R (Lawal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (death in detention, SoS’s duties) [2021] UKUT 114 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has decided that the Home Office’s policies on the death of immigration detainees are contrary to its proced ...
15th April 2021Human trafficking to be covered by the Adults at Risk policy
The Home Secretary has laid a new draft of the Adults at Risk statutory guidance before Parliament. The new version marks a significant change in how trafficking victims fit within the policy framework for detaining vulnerable people. At present, the ...
6th April 2021Lack of legal advice for migrants in prison ruled “discriminatory”
The High Court in SM v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWHC 418 (Admin) has held that free legal advice must be made available to immigration detainees held in prisons, bringing access to lawyers into line with the legal advice scheme operating in immigration ...
26th February 2021Home Office given 48 hours to release immigration detainee despite coronavirus
In an interim relief decision the High Court has ordered the release of an immigration detainee within 48 hours, indicating that judges will not allow the Home Office to use the pandemic as cover to justify long “grace period” delays in re ...
10th February 2021Indian man detained for 13 months under immigration powers loses bid for release
The High Court has upheld the continued detention of an Indian national in a Category B prison on the basis of a high risk of absconding and serious criminal convictions, despite detention already lasting well over a year. The case is Singh v Secretar ...
3rd February 2021