Andy Drozdziak
Catholic social justice group JRS UK says ‘the use of detention for immigration control must end’ after a ‘horrifying’ report into conditions at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre revealed that detainees were on the receiving end of physical violence and abusive language.
At the centre in Crawley, West Sussex, men were generally held in shared cells with poor ventilation and unscreened toilets, an inquiry said, noting the “harsh” and “prison-like” conditions.
Chairwoman Kate Eves described footage of incidents at Brook House, which was shown to the inquiry, as “often very distressing to watch” but said they acted as a “visceral reminder of the suffering” experienced by detainees.
She concluded that 19 incidents of mistreatment had taken place in a five-month period in 2017, with detainees treated like prisoners and an “us and them” mentality among staff.
Responding to the report, Sarah Teather, JRS UK’s Director, said:” If we are serious about this never happening again, the use of detention for immigration control must end.
“This report is further, painful proof of just how destructive immigration detention is. The horrifying events in Brook House are not isolated. They are part and parcel of a wider system. Detention routinely dehumanises people and denies them justice.”
The inquiry was launched in 2019, two years after a BBC Panorama programme broadcast undercover footage showing alleged abuse towards detainees. The report is the outcome of an independent inquiry into abuse by staff of people detained at Brook House IRC between April and August 2017. The violent abuse against detained people described in the report includes dangerous uses of force and force used to “provoke and punish”.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the report set out “failings in both oversight and governance to protect the welfare of detained individuals” at Brook House. She told MPs that “significant improvements to immigration detention” had been made since the 2017 events covered by the report, but Kate Eves repeated her observation that past calls to Government reform had fallen on deaf ears.
Sarah Teather criticised the Government’s continued use of detention centres for immigration- particularly as new powers to detain people will be introduced in the Government’s controversial Illegal Migration Act.
“The government is aggressively expanding it and even planning to subject children to routine and indefinite detention. Sweeping new powers allowing the government to detain people arbitrarily are about to come into force. This is outrageous, and the inquiry report again shows why. It is not too late to take a different course,” she said.
Ms Eves has made 33 recommendations which she said must be implemented “wholesale”.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, described the inquiry as “damning” and said it had “not only exposed grave safeguarding failures but shown clearly that the Home Office is not able to provide basic levels of care and humanity for vulnerable people in detention”.
He added that “pushing forward with new legislation will only lead to more overcrowding and abuse in understaffed detention centres, while shutting down the asylum system will see costs spiral even further,” calling instead for “order and compassion”.
Picture: Brook House Inquiry chairman Kate Eves. Kate Eves/Brook House Inquiry/PA Wire