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| Home Office is keeping asylum seekers locked up in detention centres 'even after accepting they have been tortured' | Home Office is keeping asylum seekers locked up in detention centres 'even after accepting they have been tortured' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Home Office is keeping vulnerable asylum seekers locked up in detention centres even after accepting they have been tortured, MPs have been told. | The Home Office is keeping vulnerable asylum seekers locked up in detention centres even after accepting they have been tortured, MPs have been told. |
| In every one of nine sample cases, detention was “maintained” despite officials acknowledging torture had taken place, inspectors revealed. | In every one of nine sample cases, detention was “maintained” despite officials acknowledging torture had taken place, inspectors revealed. |
| The inquiry also heard that the Home Office had failed to produce improvement plans demanded for 16 of its centres – one dating back all the way to December 2016. | The inquiry also heard that the Home Office had failed to produce improvement plans demanded for 16 of its centres – one dating back all the way to December 2016. |
| It was accused of waiting for migrants and asylum seekers to “give up” and leave the country, rather than settle their cases - exploiting the much-criticised absence of a time limit on detention. | It was accused of waiting for migrants and asylum seekers to “give up” and leave the country, rather than settle their cases - exploiting the much-criticised absence of a time limit on detention. |
| The inspectors from HMI Prisons joined the growing calls for a time limit, warning of a “deep level of emotional distress” and rising suicides. | The inspectors from HMI Prisons joined the growing calls for a time limit, warning of a “deep level of emotional distress” and rising suicides. |
| Hindpal Singh Bhui, the team leader, said 23 people had been locked up for more than one year at one centre, adding: “All too often we see cases where a kind of standoff develops. | Hindpal Singh Bhui, the team leader, said 23 people had been locked up for more than one year at one centre, adding: “All too often we see cases where a kind of standoff develops. |
| “The Home Office is waiting for detainees to give up – whereas what we would rather they were doing is working very efficiently, effectively and quickly to resolve cases.” | “The Home Office is waiting for detainees to give up – whereas what we would rather they were doing is working very efficiently, effectively and quickly to resolve cases.” |
| Mr Singh Bhui said the sample of rule 35 cases – people known to be vulnerable – had been carried out at Harmondsworth Centre, finding torture in nine out of the ten people examined. | Mr Singh Bhui said the sample of rule 35 cases – people known to be vulnerable – had been carried out at Harmondsworth Centre, finding torture in nine out of the ten people examined. |
| “Every one of those people had detention maintained despite the evidence of torture being accepted,” he told the home affairs select committee. | “Every one of those people had detention maintained despite the evidence of torture being accepted,” he told the home affairs select committee. |
| Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, said the backlog of improvement plans had grown from 12 to 16 – despite Caroline Nokes, the new immigration minister, apologising for the delays. | |
| “If I have this degree of difficulty getting a response, what must it be like for detainees?” he asked. | |
| Mr Clarke criticised the “uncertainty and distress” caused by the lack of a time limit, noting that 50 per cent of detainees were eventually “released back into the community”. | |
| “Many of them go into detention and they don’t know how long they will be there for,” he warned. | |
| There is growing criticism of Britain for being the only EU country without a statutory time limit for the detention of migrants, including by the UN Human Rights Council. | |
| The Home Office has paid £21.2m to migrants it unlawfully detained over the past five years, laying bare its “chaotic decisions” critics say. | |
| Later, Ms Nokes came under fire over the decision – sneaked out late last Friday evening – to extend the G4S contract to run Brook House immigration removal centre. | |
| The move comes months after secret footage revealed guards apparently choking, mocking and abusing detainees at the centre, near Gatwick Airport. | |
| The immigration minister insisted it made sense to keep G4S in place, because the contract expired this month and a transfer to another company would be potentially “difficult”. | |
| “It was imperative to resolve the matter,” she told the MPs – arguing it had been announced at the “first opportunity” after the end of purdah for the local council elections. |