UK government urged to end indefinite detention of asylum seekers

The Tory-led coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron has been urged to end the indefinite detention of asylum seekers in centers that resemble high-security prisons, as it is “expensive, ineffective and unjust.”

In a report released on Tuesday, a panel of British MPs made the plea, saying that the current lack of a time limit for the detentions in the immigration centers had “significant mental health costs for detainees, as well as considerable financial costs to the taxpayer.”

The report was prepared by lawmakers, including former Conservative cabinet minister Caroline Spelman, Labour’s Paul Blomfield, as well as the former chief inspector of prisons, Lord Ramsbotham, after hearing testimonies by former and current detainees.

Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather (pictured above), who led the inquiry, said: “We believe the problems that beset our immigration detention estate occur quite simply because we detain for too many people unnecessarily and for far too long.”

“The UK is an outlier in not having a time limit on detention,” she said, adding, “During the inquiry, we heard about the huge uncertainty this causes people to live with, not knowing if tomorrow they will be released, removed from the country, or continue being in detention.”
The panel also criticized Home Office policy, describing the conditions in which migrants and asylum seekers are held as “tantamount to high security prison settings.”

The report demanded that detainees be held in “suitable accommodation that is conducive to an open and relaxed regime,” adding that asylum seekers should be detained for no longer than 28 days and only then as an “absolute last resort.”

Vulnerable asylum-seekers such as pregnant women and the victims of sexual violence are also advised not to be detained.

UK is the only country in the European Union (EU) not to have an upper time limit on detention.

According to figures, at the end of 2014, there were 3,462 people in immigration detention centers, 24 percent higher than the same period in 2013; 397 had been detained for more than 6 months, 108 for longer than a year, and 18 for longer than two years.

Meanwhile, Refugee Council chief executive Maurice Wren welcomed the report, saying, “In the current system, asylum seekers who have done nothing wrong find themselves arbitrarily placed behind bars, on the say-so of Home Office civil servants, for one primary reason: because it’s politically expedient.”