Briefings for new MPs re: detention

Please find briefing papers in relation to immigration detention, that have been produced by Detention Action, Bail for Immigration Detainees – BID and Medical Justice to enable new MPs to have a good understanding f the concerns raised by organisations in relation to this practice.

Please feel free to send these briefings below to your MP, or direct them to this page and the websites of the organisations involved

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An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation (Nov 2023 – June 2024)

24 October 2024: Inspection report published: An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation (November 2023 – June 2024)

The report by David Bolt, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders & Immigration – ICIBI and his team on contingency asylum accommodation has been released.

See the Chief Inspector’s comments here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/inspection-report-published-an-inspection-of-contingency-asylum-accommodation-november-2023-june-2024

and the report, plus Home Office response here:

Migrant took his own life after multiple failings at UK detention centre

16 October 2024: BBC: Migrant took own life after ‘multiple failings’ at UK detention centre

An inquest jury has found “multiple failings” and “missed opportunities” at an immigration detention centre contributed to a Colombian man taking his own life in 2023.

The coroner examining the death of Frank Ospina said he had been let down by the state “in numerous ways” which were “utterly regretful”.

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Rethinking Security – alternative security

1 October 2024: Rethinking Security: Alternative Security Review

The Alternative Security Review was undertaken to create public dialogue in the UK on human and ecological security. It aims to show that there are other ways of creating security strategies, centring human and ecological security in policymaking.

Public engagement has been an important part of the Alternative Security Review. As well as the formal research activities that sought the opinions of ordinary people, such as the surveys and photovoice research, we ran a several informal projects as part of the ASR.

In the early stages of the project, we convened a series of Roundtable Discussions with Civil Society to explore the state of human security issues in the UK. What do groups working on or experiencing insecurity think about the government’s attitude towards and policy on human security? Where are the links with militarised ‘national security’? Does ‘national security’ harm the human security of certain groups within the UK? And what about climate breakdown?

Read more on the different components of the project here, and read the Executive and Full Reports: https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/alternative-security-review/

The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal

26 September 2024: Gov.uk: Independent report : Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal: independent research report

”What this history tells us, above all, is that individual episodes or events do not happen in chronological isolation. Government departments operate in societies with long and complex histories which affect both the formulation and also the effects of policy. In the case of the Windrush Scandal, the ‘hostile environment’ policies implemented in the 2010s did not consider properly the people whose lives and heritage have been defined by the events described in this report.”

Executive summary: Learning lessons from history

This report tells two stories alongside one another. The first story it tells is that of the administration of what might loosely be called ‘immigration policy’ in the United Kingdom, in which the movement of people across the borders of the British Isles was periodically restricted and controlled. The second story it tells is that of the history of black people and other ethnic minorities in Britain, whose lives were profoundly shaped by the politics of race in the British Empire and, latterly, the United Kingdom.

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QARN next meetings

QARN meetings: next planned meeting dates: on Zoom on Saturdays: January 4th 2025 (please note change of date); 5 April; 5 July – this will also be our AGM in person at Harrogate Quaker Meeting House 12a Queen Parade, Harrogate, HG1 5PP; 18 October; and 10 January 2026.

We usually meet quarterly using Zoom and all Quakers are welcome. We plan to start at 10.30am to manage the technical aspects of a Zoom meeting, falling quiet at around 10.45am, and beginning business at 11am; and we aim to end around 12.30pm. The meeting link will  be available to those who receive our emails, but for other people, please contact us via info@qarn.org.uk giving your name, and the Quaker Meeting to which you are attached. Thank you.

We plan to hold our AGM in Harrogate Quaker Meeting House 12a Queen Parade, Harrogate, HG1 5PP on 5 July 2024.

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Demonstration to end immigration detention on 19 October 2024

17 September 2024: Right to Remain and No To Hassockfield demonstration on 19 October 2024 – to end immigration detention

STOP PRESS – These Walls Must Fall and the No to Hassockfield campaign call for the national demonstration to end immigration detention on 19 October 2024 at Hassockfield/Derwentside

We call on our communities to join us to say no to immigration detention and the government’s detention expansion plan!

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Keeping immigration detention centres closed

11 September 2024: Bridget Walker highlights the need to keep immigration detention centres closed and shares what Friends can do to help.

Immigration detention is a dark corner of a broken system.
Immigration detention is a dark corner of a broken system.

For nearly twenty years I was an active member of the Campaign to Close Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre, a detention facility near Oxford. In 2018 the Home Office shut the centre as part of a policy to reduce the numbers of men and women held in immigration detention. The closure was a moment of rejoicing, particularly for those who had experienced detention or who had feared to be picked up and detained as they went about their daily lives.

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Call for simpler routes to regularisation for undocumented migrants

We are joining with others to call on the Home Secretary to implement policies which make it easier for people to regularise their residence status. People do not choose to become undocumented, and should be supported in finding security once again.

3 September 2024: Migrant Voice: Please find below the letter signed by QARN and Quakers in Britain that was sent to Yvette Cooper

The reasons people become undocumented can be varied, and are often through no fault of their own. People who have lived in the UK for decades, people with families and friends, people just living their lives, stripped of their residence status overnight for the simplest of things.

Together with more than 80 other organisations, and with more than 145 signatories in total, we have written an open letter to the Home Secretary to implement policies which make it easier for people to secure a recognised status.

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