|
|
| |
|
| |
17/08/05
JRS-UK News Release
Jesuit Refugee Service 'horrified' at conditions at Immigration
Centres
The Inspectorate of Prisons' report on conditions in which
detained immigrants are held has been welcomed by the Jesuit
Refugee Service - UK. But it has labelled the facilities
available as 'unacceptable', adding that 'the way in which
immigration detention is operated in the UK is abhorrent and
unconscionable'. JRS-UK was responding to the report by the
prisons watchdog that was published today (16 August 2005). The
full statement from JRS-UK is as follows:
Jesuit Refugee Service welcomes the work carried out by Her
Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons in monitoring short term
immigration holding centres and immigration removal centres.
Without their care and attention many of the awful conditions in
which detained immigrants are held would never come to light.
We are horrified by the conditions in which detainees are
routinely held in these facilities. To hold individuals and
families overnight in conditions where they do not have access
to a bed and other adequate facilities, including medical, is
unacceptable.
Jesuit Refugee Service works with detainees. Immigration
detention in the UK is arbitrary and open-ended. We have come
across in the course of our work individuals who have been
detained for many months and sometimes years. These individuals
are detained on the authority of an immigration officer and
their detention is not as a matter of course reviewable by the
courts.
We believe that the way in which immigration detention is
operated in the UK is abhorrent and unconscionable. In our
opinion, open-ended detention is contrary to human rights. Many
of our clients have suffered considerable trauma in their
countries of origin. Some are torture survivors. Most develop
mental health problems as a result of their detention and
sometimes as a result of the trauma previously suffered. Access
to medical facilities in some of the centres is not good,
particularly if the detainee requires specialist treatment.
We also find it unconscionable that families are detained in the
UK. Children whether accompanied by adults or not should never
be detained. Short term holding facilities and immigration
removal centres are not appropriate locations to hold children.
Their needs cannot be met there and it is certainly not in the
best interests of the child to be detained.
For further information, contact:
Ged Clapson
Jesuit Communications Officer, British Province,
114 Mount Street
London UK
W1K 3AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7499 0285
Mobile: +44 (0)7778 218671
www.jesuit.org.uk |
|
