HM Inspectorate of Prisons, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre’, 2019
- Category: Reports
- Source: National Authorities
- Subject: Refugee/Asylum, Migration, Human Rights, LGBT+
- Place: United Kingdom
- Year: 2019
- File: Brook-House-web-2019
- URL: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/brook-house-immigration-removal-centre-2/
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’, September 2019
Introduction:
Brook House is an immigration removal centre on the perimeter road of Gatwick Airport. It was last inspected in November 2016. It is operated by G4S, and holds adult male detainees. Since the last inspection the number of detainees held in the centre has reduced from nearly 400 to around 240. About 10 months after the last inspection a BBC Panorama programme was broadcast which showed members of staff at Brook House acting in what seemed to be a violent and inappropriate manner towards detainees.
The report’s recommendations include:
Key concern: Despite the reduction in the average length of detention, some detainees were held for prolonged periods. There was evidence that lengthy and indefinite detention affected feelings of safety and wellbeing. At the start of our inspection, 13 detainees had been held for more than six months, two of them for more than a ear. The longest detention was for one year and eight months. Sluggish casework and delays in obtaining suitable accommodation and travel documents prolonged detention.
Recommendation: There should be a strict time limit on the length of detention and caseworkers should act with diligence and expedition throughout detention. (p53)