This is good news – the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration and HP Chief Inspector of Prisons have previously worked on inquiries, for example in relation to Penally and Napier camps, but this new document make transparent the ways in which they intend to collaborate –
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
Continue reading “Briefings for new MPs re: detention”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:
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”.
Continue reading “Migrant took his own life after multiple failings at UK detention centre”Destitute and in Danger, JRS UK’s new report, examines the experiences of homelessness among people refused asylum in London in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
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/
”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.
Continue reading “The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal”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!
Continue reading “Demonstration to end immigration detention on 19 October 2024”
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.
Continue reading “Keeping immigration detention centres closed”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.
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.
Continue reading “Call for simpler routes to regularisation for undocumented migrants”
