Migrant Held Too Long In UK

Bleak house: the Harmondsworth Detention Centre near Heathrow airport Getty Images                        

An independent review by Stephen Shaw, the former prisons' ombudsman, called last week for an immediate reduction in the 30,000 people held in immigration centres in the UK every year.

The UK is the only country in Europe that has no time limit on detention for migrants. We are detaining migrants for too long: months, sometimes years. And every second, every minute spent in detention, the detainee becomes more traumatised, stressed, depressed and maybe suicidal.

The UK is wasting tax payers' money be detaining individuals who fled their countries to seek our protection. They should be given sanctuary and be allowed to contribute to society. The UK should end its practice of indefinite detention now.

Suspected terrorists can only be held for 14 days without charge, yet asylum-seekers and migrants can be held indefinitely.

In another reports (Independent), Jonathan Owen reports on a growing campaign to end a 'legal barbarism'.

At any one point in time, several thousand people are in detention under immigration rules. Most of those are failed asylum-seekers, while others may be those whose visas may have run out, or who had indefinite leave to remain until being given a deportation order. In many cases, those who are held for long periods are from counties with barriers to removal, such as Somalia, Iran, and Eritrea. Others are detained because they are ex-offenders and regarded a “flight risk.”

The call for a time limit on how long people can be held is likely to be a key recommendation in a report to be published next month by the first ever cross-party parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention.

A Home Office spokesman said: “No one is held in immigration detention indefinitely. Individuals are detained for the shortest period necessary and all detention is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure it remains justified and reasonable. We have a duty to protect the public from those who pose a risk of harm and, in particular, those who have committed serious criminal offences. It is open to any individual held in immigration detention to apply for bail or challenge the decision in the courts.”

Source: Mon Metro & Independent