Detained-Lives-report1

detained lives: the real cost of indefinite immigration detention
executive summary
wasting lives and money
Detained Lives reveals the ineffectiveness
and the human impact of the
UK’s hidden practice of indefinite
immigration detention without time
limits. It presents the perspectives of
people detained for more than a year on all aspects of
detention. The research explores whether indefinite
detention achieves its stated aims of deporting people,
through analysis of London Detainee Support Group’s
case files. The evidence suggests that indefinite detention
simply does not work: as a means of deporting
people it is ineffective and grossly inefficient. The
testimony of detainees shows the human cost to be
vast: the opaque implementation of detention without
time limits leads many people to despair.
Ineffective
London Detainee Support Group has over the last
20 months supported 188 people who have been detained
for more than a year. Only 18% have been deported.
Britain is one of the few countries in Europe
that practice indefinite detention, yet still has one of
the lowest rates of removal of refused asylum seekers.
Some people simply cannot be returned, for reasons
of statelessness or because their countries of origin are
too dangerous. Indefinite detention of these people
achieves nothing.
Inefficient
The practice of indefinite detention is an inefficient
and expensive means of achieving deportations. The
detention of LDSG’s 188 indefinitely detained clients
has cost the taxpayer around £22 million. Since
only 31 have gone on to be deported, the detention
of these people has cost around £700,000 for each
deportation.
Indefinite detention, lasting for years without a release
date, causes distress and psychological deterioration
that it is out of all proportion to the immigration
goals sought. The research revealed significant
numbers of indefinite detainees developing mental
health problems, self-harming or attempting suicide.
Interviewees described their despair at seeing no way
out of detention.
Opaque
Detainees experience a lack of transparent evidencebased
decision making at all stages. The presumption
of detention induces the UK Border Agency (UKBA)
to detain even where it is clear that no deportation
is likely to be possible in the near future. Release is
routinely refused by UKBA and the Asylum and Immigration
Tribunal (AIT), based on what appear to
be subjective assessments of risk of re-offending or absconding.
Meanwhile, detainees are excluded from
any meaningful dialogue with UKBA. Immigration
officers with decision-making power are no longer
based in detention centres. As a result, many detainees
find their ongoing detention incomprehensible,
having no idea what they can do to bring their detention
to an end.
Key recommendations
London Detainee Support Group calls on the Home
Office to end its derogation from the EU Returns Directive
and adopt a maximum time limit for detention.
Detention should only be used as a last resort
for the shortest possible time pending removal, in line
with the requirements of the 1971 Immigration Act.
All decisions to detain should be evidence-based and
subject to regular and thorough reviews. Where no
imminent deportation is possible, detainees should be
released and allowed to live with dignity and participate
in the community.
Human cost
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