A sneak preview of NCADC’s campaign toolkit: immigration detention
NCADC is currently working on a campaigns toolkit, based on the experiences of our workers, members, supporters and groups we’ve campaigned alongside. It is designed to provide advice, resources, and campaign suggestions for migrants, and people supporting or working with migrants. The finalised version will be available online and in hard copy later in the year, but before that selected sections will be posted here on the NCADC blog. We welcome suggestions and comments, particularly from people who have been directly involved in campaigns.
The first section to be previewed is on Immigration Detention:
What is immigration detention?
People detained under immigration powers may be detained in an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), or foreign national prisoners who have completed their custodial sentence may continue to be detained in prison.
Some of the immigration removal centres are run by private security companies, others by the Prison Service. People in detention cannot leave and have very limited freedom of movement within the centres. Security levels are similar to prisons. The ‘detention estate’ has expanded massively over the last few years.
NCADC website has information on detention centres, visitors groups, and links to UKBA detention centre webpages here.
Who can be detained?
There are points in the asylum and immigration process when someone is more likely to be detained, but the simple answer is that almost anyone subject to immigration control can potentially be detained. This means that anyone without British citizenship could be detained under immigration powers, and there have even been cases of British citizens detained in error by UKBA, but it is very unusual for this to happen.
When can you be detained?
The times you are most at risk of being detained are:
- when you enter the UK
- when you apply for asylum or another kind of leave having already entered the UK, usually after a screening interview (detained fast-track and non-suspensive appeals)
- after an application for leave (including asylum) is refused and you have no further appeals available to you (you may have received a letter from UKBA saying you are ‘appeals rights exhausted’).
For more information on entry to the UK, and detained fast-track and non-suspensive appeals, look out for future sections on the asylum and immigration processes.
It is common for someone at risk of detention to be picked up when they go for their regular reporting/signing in, but people are also picked up from their homes (sometimes in dawn raids), from the community, even at their children’s’ schools.
Being prepared in case of detention
- Community sign-in at reporting
Most people who have applied for asylum or other forms of leave to remain and have not yet got papers must report to sign at their local UKBA reporting centre or a police station. At every reporting visit, the person is at risk of detention.
Some people always phone a friend when they are entering the reporting centre, with instructions for what to do and who to contact if they are detained. If the friend does not get a call within an hour or two to say they are safe they will call the solicitor and anyone else, like a campaign support group or NCADC.
In some areas, local support groups (such as the Unity Centre in Glasgow and WAST in Manchester) have set up systems to help with this. They will check-in with the group first, who keep a record of everyone’s contact details and emergency instructions of what to do if they do not come out.
This means that people who are signing at UKBA will know that people are looking out for them. This can save valuable time: supporters can then start finding out exactly where that individual is, what has happened, and what can be done to help straight away.
- If you are a campaigning or support group: find out about the local detention system. Do you know where people are often picked up, and where they will be taken? This will save valuable time when you are supporting someone who has been detained.
- If you are at risk of being detained, do you have a list of emergency contacts that you have shared with someone? These might include your solicitor’s number (and your reference number), any close friends or family, people you have spoken to about caring for any children in case of detention, doctors or hospitals if you have a medical condition.
- If you are a campaign or support group, have you got a system in place for raising support as quickly as possible (with the consent of the person who has been detained)? This might take the form of a telephone tree, or a plan for an emergency meeting.
- Copy of documents
If someone is detained, it may become impossible for them to access their documents. This means that vital evidence that a solicitor or a campaign group needs can’t be reached. It’s a good idea to have copies of all your important documents (and not just with a solicitor, as these will not always be accessible and can be lost if the solicitor firm closes down, for example).Give a copy of these documents to someone you trust. This may be a friend, or a supporter.
- If possible, give a friend a copy of your house/flat/room key
This may not be possible, for example if you are living in asylum support or Section 4 accommodation. But some ex-detainees suggest giving a friend/supporter a copy of your house key so if you are detained, they can go and get essential things for you from your house. Only give a key to someone you trust, and make sure you are allowed to do this under your accommodation rules
- have a non-smart phone/save your numbers to the sim card
It used to be the case that any mobile phones with internet access or a camera would be taken off you at the point of detention. It would therefore be a good idea to have a very basic phone that you could keep with you. However, there are now schemes in place (for example, at Yarl’s Wood IRC) where everyone’s phone is taken off them and they are issued with a Yarl’s Wood phone. If it’s possible to still use your own sim card, it’s a good idea to have saved important numbers to the sim card beforehand (rather than to your phone handset) so the numbers will be still available in the replacement phone.
Practical Information in Detention
The procedure in each IRC is different. You may not be able to rely on the staff there to give you helpful information about procedure and your rights, so it could be a good idea to contact a local visitor group (see below).
If you feel your rights are not being respected, let someone know. You may want to tell a visitor group, your solicitor, a friend or supporter, or make a complaint to the IRC or UKBA.
To find out more about your rights in detention, you could contact one of the groups in the Resources section below.
Support in Detention
Friends and family can visit you in detention. They will need to find out the visiting times, notify the centre in advance (they may need to give a few hours or notice or, in the case of some centres like Yarl’s Wood, give 24 hours’ notice) and bring ID with them. They can ask the centre what form of ID they will need. They will need to have their photograph taken at the centre, and their fingerprints may be scanned as well. See the Home Office website for details of visiting each detention centre.
There are also befriending and visitor groups set up for most immigration removal centres and some short-term holding facilities and prisons. The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) has a list of their members on its website.
AVID has also published a useful handbook for people wanting to visit someone in immigration detainees.
It can be difficult to keep in touch with people in detention. At some centres, such as Morton Hall, mobile phone signal is very poor. Most IRCs will have landlines that detainees can use. For the centres where IRC mobile phone and sim cards are being given in replacement for a detainee’s own phone, the cost of calling out can be very expensive. If you are supporting someone in detention, remember that many phone networks charge to pick up voicemail messages. If you don’t get through to the person in detention, it’s better to send a text message which they can read for free. Internet access can also be limited in detention – certain sites such as Facebook are blocked.
Emotional support is very important for people who are detained, as it is a very isolating and distressing experience. See upcoming section on Emotional Support.
If you are in detention, you may want to think about a public campaign calling for your release. This may involve Community Action, Media campaigning, Internet campaigning, or Political campaigning. Think about whether you want a public campaign, or a smaller private campaign. Look out for upcoming sections on Community Action, Media campaigning, Internet campaigning and Political Campaigning.
There will also be legal routes available to you, which are explained below.
Legal Options
Legal aid contracts
Funded legal advice given free to immigration detainees can now only be done by certain contracted firms. Although it is not completely up-to-date, a useful list of these firms can be found at the Legal Services Commission (LSC) website here.
These firms have legal surgeries which you can sign up for if you are in detention. The rotas for these surgeries get booked up very far in advance, and the quality of legal advice is variable. Access to legal aid is limited by restrictive criteria set by the authorities. If you experience problems signing up with the rota, or with the legal advice you receive, you can make a complaint to the solicitor firm and to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner. You could also contact the LSC, who are responsible for the contracts. The LSC, working with Bail Immigration for Detainees (BID), AVID, and Detention Action and the Immigration Legal Practitioners Association (ILPA) are attempting to monitor the provision of legal advice in detention.
Alternatives to legal aid solicitors
If you are unable to get legal advice from one of the contracted firms in immigration detention, you could think about these alternatives:
- pro-bono legal advice. Some legal advisors can provide legal advice on a voluntary basis. They will not be charging the LSC for this work, so they do not need to work for one of the LSC contracted firms. Cuts to legal aid and the closure of firms means legal advisors are increasingly overstretched, so while the need for pro-bono advice is going to increase, the capacity of legal advisors to provide it may decrease.
- support that does not involve giving legal advice. A supporter may be able to help explain your legal documents (for example, explaining what certain words mean), or help you look for evidence, without giving legal advice. This could be done over the telephone, but is better done in person.
- fundraise for a private solicitor (look out for upcoming Understanding your legal case section)
Getting Out of Detention
There is no set time limit on immigration detention. International law, European law, British law and UKBA policy all enshrine the presumption of release and liberty but this is often not reflected in practice.
Case law on length of detention has established that people can only be detained for a ‘reasonable’ period of time, and the power to detain only exists when there is a ‘realistic prospect of removal’.
UKBA must undertake regular detention reviews to justify a continued detention. To request release from detention, a request can be made for temporary admission or bail.
Bail is more formal – temporary admission is easier to request, but is not granted very often. It’s best to have the help of a solicitor in applying for bail, as the application involves a bail hearing (unless an application is made for CIO bail – unlikely to be granted if an application for temporary admission has been refused). If you cannot find a solicitor you can apply yourself. BID (see below) have a handbook which can help with this. BID have also written a report highlighting the problems in obtaining bail, called A Nice Judge on a Good Day.
The main conditions of release will be a specified address and sureties. Sometimes people are released but then fitted with an electronic tagging device.
If UKBA has been found to have not followed its policy on reasonable length of detention, this will make at least some of the period of the detention unlawful. The detainee may subsequently be able to seek financial compensation (damages).
Addresses
Successful temporary admission and bail applications will include a particular address to live at on release. This is often difficult for migrants to provide. If you are applying for bail, you can apply for Section 4 accommodation as a bail address (although at the time of writing, there are long delays with processing these applications). BID have produced a leaflet with more information about post-detention accommodation.
Another obstacle can be the location of the address: if someone is acting as a surety (see below), and does not live near the accommodation address, bail may be refused on the basis the surety cannot easily check you are living at the address you have said you will.
Sureties
A surety is someone who puts up a sum of money guaranteeing the person applying for bail will keep to the bail conditions. If the detainee doesn’t keep to the conditions, the surety will lose the money they have put up. No money is handed over when someone agrees to be a surety, but if bail conditions are broken the money will be taken from their bank account. The amount for surety is a significant amount – is it often in the thousands of pounds (and if the surety has a high income, it will be even higher as it is meant to be an amount which would be difficult to lose. If the surety is an asylum seeker or someone on a very low income, it may be a much lower figure than this).
The bail application form has space for two sureties, though this isn’t a requirement. The surety will need to attend the bail hearing and provide ID, proof of address, occupation, financial status and immigration status. NB – a criminal record check and immigration record check will be undertaken of all people who act as sureties. You do not need to be a British citizen to act as surety, but if you have problems with your immigration status, it may not be a good idea to act as a surety for someone.
The best sureties are close friends or colleagues, rather than family members or supporters who do not know the detainee well, but this is not always possible. If you do not know anyone to act as a surety, you could speak to your local visiting group or BID.
Bail Hearings
It’s important to check the bail summary provided by UKBA (their case for continued detention) – there are often mistakes in this that could be challenged.The bail hearing will consider things such as the release accommodation, sureties, an individual’s likelihood to
abscond (run away or not keep to reporting conditions), immigration history, family or community ties and factors such as health conditions.
There are often problems with bail hearings such as procedural irregularities, lack of legal representation and interpretation problems. The Bail Observation Project was set up to monitor these, and wrote a report entitled Immigration Bail Hearings: a Travesty of Justice? detailing the problems and calling for improvements. This report contains a section on what ought to happen in a bail hearing, which will help you follow what goes on in court.
It’s best to have a legal advisor to represent you in a bail hearing. You may want a friend or supporter to attend the bail hearing with you, and if you have a public campaign, the campaign group may wish to hold a solidarity protest outside the hearing. (See future Community Campaigning section).
Who shouldn’t be detained, according to UKBA’s own policy?
UKBA policy on detention states that the following groups of people should only be detained in very exceptional circumstances:
x unaccompanied minors (though there have been cases of age disputed minors detained by UKBA as adults, who have in fact been children.
x pregnant women
x torture survivors (including rape)
x people with serious medical conditions or mental health conditions that cannot be appropriately managed in detention
The list of criteria for people who cannot be detained in the Fast Track System is more comprehensive. Although this will not wholly apply for non-fast track cases, it can be useful to look at for ideas of how to argue detention is inappropriate.
Medical cases, torture survivors and Rule 35
Detention Centre rule 35 requires detention centre doctors to report to UKBA “any detained person whose health is likely to be injuriously affected by continued detention or any conditions of detention.”
More information on rule 35 is available from Medical Justice.
Many detainees struggle to access proper healthcare in detention, and rule 35 reports are commonly either not done, or not done properly. If you think this is the case for you, you should speak to your solicitor and contact Medical Justice.
To be released from detention as a survivor of torture, independent evidence will be needed. Medical Justice may be able to assist with preparing this.
Although UKBA policy wording has recently changed to tighten the definition of people with mental health conditions not suitable to be detained, there has also been case law showing that in very extreme cases, the continued detention of individuals with severe mental health issues has breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: the right not to be tortured, or subjected to inhumane or degrading treatment.
Resources
The Association for Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID)
A membership network for visitor groups. They produce an informative monthly newsletter (In Touch), and have useful information about immigration detention on their website. They are a good organisation to contact if you are thinking about becoming a visitor/befriender to someone in immigration detention, or want information about groups that already visit different immigration removal centres, short-term holding facilities, and people kept under immigration powers in prison.
Formerly the London Detainee Support Group, Detention Action support detainees in Harmondworth and Colnbrook IRCs and campaign on immigration detention issues, particularly the detained fast track system and indefinite detention.
Medical Justice is a network of asylum detainees, doctors, experts and other supporters exposing and challenging inadequate healthcare provision to immigration detainees. They provide casework for immigration detainees with serious medical conditions and survivors of torture.
The Detention Forum is a loose network of over 30 NGOs who are working on immigration detention issues. They work together to build a momentum to question the legitimacy of immigration detention which has become such a normal part of the British immigration system.
Bail Immigration for Detainees (BID)
Bail for Immigration Detainees is an independent charity that exists to challenge immigration detention in the UK. They work with asylum seekers and migrants, in removal centres and prisons, to secure their release from detention. See above for an explanation of why bail is important.
BID have a London office, an Oxford office and a South office. See here for details.
The Campaign to Close Campsfield is a campaign group working to close Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre near Oxford. It has been active since 1993, holds monthly demonstrations outside Campsfield, monthly campaign meetings in Oxford, and works together with other groups to stop immigration detention, racist deportations and immigration laws enforcing racism. The Campaign to Close Campsfield currently runs the Bail Observation Project.
Barbed Wire Britain is a campaign network against immigration detention. It aims to organise at a local and national level to end the practice of immigration detention in the UK, to help local groups to get established, to raise the national profile of debate on the issue, to help give voice to detainees and former detainees, and to establish links with like-minded organisations and individuals in other countries.
