No Release, No Return, No Reason - Challenging Indefinite Detention 2010

8/3/2019 No Release, No Return, No Reason - Challenging Indefinite Detention 2010

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SEPTEMBER 2010

Challenging Indefnite Detention


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ConTenTS

3 ecti smmar

4 Frwrd b Lrd Ramsbtham

5 Itrdcti

7 What fall has t idfit dtais? Qatitati aalsis cas fls

10 Sm srt lic dcisi dd: Idfit dtti i litical ctt

14 egh is gh hr: Lgal challgs t lawl dtti

18 First rsrt, t last rsrt: Grwig ccrs mitrig bdis

21 W th dtais ar als hmas: Camaigig agaist idfit dtti

24 Cclsi is thr a altrati?

27 Rcmmdatis

28 Caldar ts

The Whisper is sel experience in detention centre,Maybe whisper is loud than shouting.The story o the whisper inside every part,

The colour, the black board, the bed, the razor wire around the bed,The rope, the landline phone,The mobile and why they are out o order.The UKBA letter and the only word you can read.Maybe he not looks like me but Im sure that is me.

M Whisper


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Abt LDSG:

London Detainee Support Group (LDSG) wasestablished in 1993 to improve the welareo immigration detainees in the London area.LDSG provides emotional and practicalsupport to immigration detainees, primarily inHarmondsworth and Colnbrook ImmigrationRemoval Centres, near Heathrow Airport. A

pool o around 40 volunteer visitors supportindividual detainees through regular visits. Ateam o fve ull-time sta and ten ofce-basedvolunteers assist detainees with casework andreerrals, including covering the detainee ree-phone. The Leaving Detention Advice Projectadvises and represents detainees in applyingor bail addresses, which can enable them toseek their release rom detention and avoidsubsequent destitution. Regular on-site adviceworkshops are held in both centres, providingaccessible advice and building relationships

with hard-to-reach detainees.

The Detained Lives campaign aims to endindefnite detention. It was launched by LDSGin January 2009, with the publication o aresearch report on the real cost o detainingmigrants indefnitely. The campaign has hadsignifcant success in initiating debate on thishidden practice and enabling detainees voicesto be heard.

Mohammed Shoaib Dead End in Detention

LONDON

DETAINEESUPPORTGROUP

2


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exeCuTIve SuMMARy

CtrrsialIn contrast to the debate over proposals to detainsuspected terrorists or 42 days, the indenitedetention o migrants has not received the publicprole that it merits. However, international anddomestic monitoring bodies have increasinglycondemned indenite detention. The HM Chie

Inspector o Prisons has drawn attention tothe distress o detainees held indenitely withno prospect o imminent removal. The UN

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention hascondemned indenite detention as arbitraryand a deprivation o the equal protection othe law on grounds o citizenship. The issuehas attracted critical coverage in the nationalmedia. Organisations working with detainees areincreasingly coming together to challenge thepractice and have joined LDSG in calling or anend to indenite detention.

Maybe they arent human or Imnot human.

Ahmad Javani, detained 13 months

DamagigYet people who cannot be deported continueto be detained or years. This report eaturesthe voices o twelve current detainees whohave been held or over a year, and artisticrepresentations o indenite detention by aurther twelve detainees. They describe theirrustration as months turn into years with nodevelopments in their cases. They speak o thedamage to their own and other detainees mentalhealth. The words and the art o indenitedetainees run throughout this report.

I Jaar 2009, Ld Dtai SrtGr (LDSG) blishd rsarch th hiddractic idfit immigrati dtti. Thrsarch istigatd th cass 188 lsrtd b LDSG wh had b dtaidr r a ar, ad itriwd 24 thm. Itccldd that idfit dtti is icti,

ifcit, aq, ad tails a trribl hmacst. Fllwig th rrt, LDSG lachd acamaig, Dtaid Lis, t brig a d tidfit dtti. This rrt risits thscass t fd t what had, ad assssswhat has chagd sic th.

Icti ad ifcitTwenty months on, the evidence conrmswhat was suspected at the time: indenitedetention usually does not lead to deportation. Ideportation has not been possible ater a year, itis unlikely to become possible later. A ull 57%o the indenite detainees surveyed in the reporthave been released. They have lost years o theirlives in detention to no purpose. Only a third othe detainees were deported. The detainees havebeen held or a total o 399 years, at a cost to thetaxpayer o over 27 million.

ulawlThe High Court has ruled in a series o judgmentsthat detention or years with no prospecto deportation is unlawul. Many indenitedetainees who cannot be deported to countrieslike Somalia have been released as a result.

LDSG has worked strategically with solicitors toidentiy and initiate unlawul detention actions.The result is a body o case law that constrains,but does not yet abolish, the power to detainmigrants indenitely.

Please stop, stop wasting taxpayers money and peoples lie. -

Rashid Ali, detained our years

No Return No Release No Reason: Challenging Indefnite Detention


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FoReWoRDIn March 2008, the Independent Asylum Commission publishedits interim fndings, ollowed by three separate reports coveringhow it was decided who needed sanctuary, what happens whensanctuary is reused and how people seeking sanctuary aretreated. Collectively they orm a very constructive overview owhat needs to happen to make improvements, on top o a prettydamning indictment o our current asylum and immigrationsystem, once described by a ormer Home Secretary, John Reid,as not being ft or purpose.

Recently a number o members o the Coalition governmenthave reminded the public o a remarkable speech made in July1910, by another ormer Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, in

which he said that the way in which it treated crime and criminalswas a true test o the civilisation o any country. Most asylum and

immigration seekers have committed no crime, which makes how they are treated an evenstarker test. In all too many respects I ear that the way in which this country treats suchpeople does not warrant an epithet which we were once proud to claim throughoutthe world.

As Chie Inspector o Prisons rom 1995-2001, responsible or the inspection o what werethen called Immigration Detention Centres, I was concerned at the length o time processingseemed to take, including an issue that aected both systems, namely the processing othose whose sentence included deportation rom the country. In logic I could see no reason

why that processing should not take place during the period o imprisonment so that, onrelease, the person concerned was taken straight to the airport and fown home. Insteadnothing was done during imprisonment, the person concerned was moved, inappropriately,

to an immigration centre, and the process started rom there. Quite apart rom causingproblems in detention centres, this involved considerable delay and distress to many people.

This report ocuses on a sub-group o these, who are condemned to indefnite detention,because they cannot be deported. Another sub-group areofcially condemned to destitution, denied the right to workor benefts. As a Commissioner I am thereore very gladto welcome it because, in addition to ollowing up LDSGresearch published in 2009, it is maintaining the momentumon issues that were put, ormally, to government over twoyears ago, and still have not been resolved.

The coalition government appears to be keen to resolve the

wholly unsatisactory situation it inherited. It will need todo so as the system comes under even greater strain due toclimate change and other drivers o population movement. Intaking such action it will do well to listen to practitioners suchas the London Detainee Support Group who, in addition tobeing keen to salvage our national reputation, stand readyto help in any way they can. But change will only happen ithe culture o disbelie, that has marked too many ofcialresponses to asyIum issues in the recent past, is consigned tothe dustbin.

Lrd Ramsbtham

Monday Yanya My time


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InTRoDuCTIon

Th campaign against indfnit immigrationdtntion bgan on da in a corridor oColnbrook Immigration Rmoval Cntr in April2008. Mohammd, a dtain rom Sdan,cam to an advic workshop hld b LDSG.Mohammd was too angr to sit down withan advisor, and xplaind his rstration in thcorridor. H had bn dtaind or 18 months

at that tim, atr fnishing a prison sntncor sing a als passport. H had obtaind aals passport bcas h was homlss anddsprat to lav th uK. His aslm had bnrsd, h was cooprating with th rtrnprocss, bt th Sdans mbass rsd toiss him a travl docmnt. evr da th nwswas ll o condmnations o proposals to dtaintrror sspcts or 42 das. yt h, and manothrs in th sam limbo, was ignord. Ivbn dtaind or 18 months, Im not dangros.Wh is no-on talking abot m? yo shold btlling popl otsid that this is happning.

Nine months later, in January 2009, LDSGpublished the Detained Lives report on the realcost o indenite immigration detention. Untilthen the term indenite detention was hardlyever used to describe long-term immigrationdetention without time limit. The report ocusedon the testimony o twenty our people whohad been detained or over a year, includingMohammed. They spoke o their rustration,their ears, the deterioration o their mentalhealth. They spoke o the injustice o a acelessand opaque system that endlessly reused theirrelease, yet was incapable o arranging their

deportation. They spoke o their shock that suchthings could happen in Britain, a country thatthey had always seen as a haven o respect orhuman rights.

The statistics produced by LDSGs researchidentied that extreme long-term detention wasbecoming normal. LDSGs volunteer researchersreviewed 188 case les o people supported bythe organisation who had been detained or overa year. They ound that at that time, only 18%had been deported, whereas a quarter had beenreleased. However, well over hal remained indetention. Would they ultimately be deported?

Does arranging deportations really take years, oris the reality that many migrants simply cannotbe deported?

This report attempts to answer that question,by considering the progress or otherwise othose 188 peoples cases, 20 months on. Inaddition, it traces the development o the debateover indenite detention in the interveningperiod. What impact has the campaign againstindenite detention had? Is the issue as hiddenand neglected as it was in 2008? What are the

experiences o the people who continue to bedetained indenitely?

This report has three elements. First, it updatesthe statistics produced or the 2009 research,to identiy the outcomes o those 188 cases.Second, interspersed through the report are the

voices o people who continue to ace indenitedetention. Third, the report traces the waythat challenges to and criticisms o indenitedetention have grown in a range o contexts.The overwhelming political pressure on theUK Border Agency (UKBA) to indiscriminatelydetain oreign ex-oenders, ollowing the

dismissal o Charles Clarke as Home Secretary,has been countered by increasing politicalopposition and a growing awareness that currentdetention practice is problematic. Once theproblem was clearly identied, legal challengeshave had a signicant impact in delimiting thelawulness o indenite detention and securingthe release o many detainees. Authoritativedomestic and international bodies have becomeincreasingly outspoken in their criticisms o thepractice. And ever more civil society bodies areworking together to call or detention reorm.

There is still a long way to go beore indenitedetention ceases to take place. It is hoped thatthis report will mark a step towards this end.


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London Detainee Support Group

Ahmad Javani from Iran,detained 13 months

Everyday, you just seeing every day same people, same ofcers,same doors, same food. I dont know what to do. I read all thebooks in the library. I want my freedom back. I want back to myfreedom.

I dont know when Im going to get back to my life. Could beany time, could be ve years, could be ve days. We dont knowyou know, thats whats killing us here.

Im not happy to go back but I say to them anything you want todo, just do it please. Whatever you want to do, just do it becauseI dont want to stay in this place.

They are too slow, they are too slow, they have no answers toour questions. I said cmon man, how long will this take, justgive me something roughly, you dont have to say exactly. Theysay they are waiting for my embassy, then I call my embassy,my embassy says we did not receive anything from you yet. Idont understand even with letter, with fax, even write a letter ittakes more than two or three weeks. One month, three months,ve months, six months, how long one year?

If any single normal person came to this place youd go mental,mad in this place. I was a normal person before coming to thisplace, and now, Im forgetting things always. Like old peoplethat forget things. I cant understand, Im not the same person.Im a different person.

Who gives this power to them to keep these people here foryears and years and years, to make them mental and crazy?Ill have a hard job to get back to normal again you know. Ispeak to quite a few people outside; they release them after4 or 5 years, I phone them to talk and they cannot talk. I justwant to talk and they say I cannot listen to you. They cant listenanymore because their head is gone. Thats why, before its toolate, I want get back to my normal life, before its too late.

People dont do this to animals, like a dog and cat they dontkeep them inside for a long time. We are human. Maybe Imasleep or maybe they are asleep. Maybe they arent human orIm not human.

Hopefully Ill get back to my normal life, everyone well all getback to our normal lives, our freedom, because I feel here like adead body just walking and talking. My wish is I can get back tomy life again. My freedom.


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I Dcmbr 2008, as art th rsarchr th Detained Lives rrt, LDSG srdth cas fls all 188 dtais wh wri ctact with th rgaisati ad wh hadb dtaid r a ar r mr llwigth w Hm ofc blakt lic dtti -drs.1 Ths cas flsga l a glims th tr tt idfit dtti, as th icldd lths dtais assig thrgh tw dttictrs, Clbrk ad HarmdswrthImmigrati Rmal Ctrs (IRCs), whhad b srtd b LDSG. LDSG is t ictact with all dtais i ths tw ctrs,ad thr ar i ttal l dtti ctrsi th uK. Hwr, rthr rsarch has sic

cfrmd that th largst mbrs lg-trmdtais ar hld i Clbrk.2

At that time, only 18% o the 188 detainees hadbeen deported. 24% had been released romdetention on bail or Temporary Admission and1% had been granted leave to remain in theUK. However, more than hal (57%) continuedto remain in detention3. As a result, it was stillnot clear whether detention or years leadsultimately to deportation, even ater extremedelays.

1 The methodology o the research and nationalities o the detaineegroup are described in LDSG, Detained Lives, January 2009,pp8-9, 12-13, http://www.detainedlives.org/wp-content/up-loads/detainedlives.pd.

2 LDSG, Gatwick Detainees Welare Group, Dover Detainee Visitor

Group, Haslar Visitors Group and Liverpool Prisons VisitingGroup, Indefnite detention in the UK, June 2009, http://www.detainedlives.org/wp-content/uploads/ldsgreport-0609.pd.

3 For more inormation, see LDSG, Detained Lives, op.cit.,pp12-13.

WHAT FInALLy HAppenSTo InDeFInITe DeTAIneeS?Qatitati aalsis cas fls

Twenty months on, we repeated the survey andwere able to conrm what nally happened to167 out o these 188 detainees. We were unableto nd out what happened to 21 o the originalgroup ater they let the detention centre inwhich they were held.4

4 LDSG identifed fnal outcomes or 167 detainees, 88% o theoriginal survey group o 188 detainees. In the remaining 21cases, the date on which they let the detention centre was usedto calculate the length o detention. It is not known whether theywere released, deported or simply transerred to another deten-

tion centre.

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre


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otcm nmbrs dtais prctag

Rlasd 95 57%

Bail 62 37%

Temporary Admission 23 14%

Release ollowing unlawul detention action at High Court 5 3%

Granted permanent status 5 3%

Drtd 56 34%

Still Dtaid 15 9%

Abscdd 1 1%

Ttal 167 100%

prid dtti nmbrs dtais prctag

4 years or more 8 4%

3.5 to 4 years 12 6%

3 to 3.5 years 8 4%

2.5 to 3 years 24 13%

2 to 2.5 years 30 16%

1.5 to 2 years 52 28%

1 - 1.5 years 54 29%Ttal 188 100%

O those 167 cases we traced, our survey showsthat only a third o the detainees (56 out o167) have been deported.5

In two thirds o cases (111 out o 167),detention o an average o over 25 months hasnot led to deportation.

A clear majority, 57% (96 out o 167),

were fnally released rom detention. Theirdetention, or an average o over two years, hasserved no purpose.Five o them were releasedater the High Court ruled that their detentionwas unlawul.

Almost one in ten detainees (15 out o 167)remain in detention. These teen people havebeen detainedor an average o three years andour months each. They still do not know whenthey will leave detention.

5 Even in the unlikely event that all 21 detainees who could not betraced had been deported, only 41% o the original group (77out o 188) would have been deported.

The UKBA states that detention is or theshortest possible time in order to eectdeportation. It is clear that, or these detainees,this was not the case.

The detainees in the original survey groupo 188 have now been detained or a total oat least 399 years.6 The last available guresgive the cost o detention in Colnbrook, wherethe great majority were held, as 68,000 perdetainee per year7. Even without allowing orinfation, this suggests that the detention othese 188 people has cost the taxpayer over27 million.

6 For those 21 detainees who could not be traced, the date onwhich they let the detention centre was used to calculate thisfgure. As some will have been transerred to other centres, thefgures given or lengths o detention in this report will slightlyunderstate the reality.

7 Costs or 2005-06, given by Home Ofce, response to a request

under the Freedom o Inormation Act, January 2007, quotedby Inormation Centre about Asylum and Reugees, Detention oAsylum Seekers in the UK, 2007, p6.


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Ctr rigi nmbrs rlasd nmbrs drtd nmbrs stilldtaid

Ttal

Algeria 13 6 2 21Iran 16 2 0 18

Iraq 7 7 2 16

Somalia 12 3 2 17

Ttal 48 18 6 72

The initial research identied that 82 o thedetainees, or 44%, were rom just our countries,all o which had well-documented barriers toremoval: Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Somalia. Thegures or these nationalities tell a strikingstory o the utility o indenite detention.89% o Iranian detainees were released, andonly one out o ten deported. 71% o Somaliswere released; all three deported were sentto Somaliland, while none were deported tosouth or central Somalia. 62% o Algerianswere released. Only Iraqis were as likely to bedeported as released, ollowing the resumptiono enorced removals in October 2009.

Two people died o terminal illness shortly aterbeing released rom detention on Temporary

Admission. Neither could be removed to their

countries o origin, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

One man died the day ater his release. He hadbeen detained or 23 months.

Fouad, an Ahwazi fromIran, detained one yearand seven months

To be honest, what I thought about Britain was I would neverface a situation like this. I believe in destiny and I believe mydestiny was to be here. When I got in that truck for Europe Ididnt know where in Europe I would end up. When I endedup in England I didnt have much of an idea about England tobe honest. English-Iranian relations are not that good so wedidnt know that much apart from seeing movies etc.

I would say if you claim human rights please act on it. Hu-man rights are a big thing for a country to claim, its reallya big responsibility. We must not think Im British or ImIranian etc; we are all human beings, the same creatures,and we have to be united. Keeping detainees doesnt solveany problem. I hope whoever is there to hear my voice cando something about it.

Fangue My Life


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Th grim str idfit immigratidtti i th uK bgis 25 Aril 2006.Th wsars ar ll th scadal thuKBAs ailr t assss rig drs rdrtati. Sm sris drs ha brlasd fishig thir stcs, withta i th uKBA csidrig whthr thshld b drtd. A ris maht islachd t track thm dw ad dtai thm.n ics ar raisd t it t that th ar mr dagrs tha British -drswh ha b rlasd fishig thirstcs. Th csss is alrad clar:rig -drs blg i dtti.

Within weeks, Home Secretary Charles Clarkesront-bench career is over. Soon, John Reid isdeclaring the Home Oce not t or purpose.But the bureaucratic response is already underway: it is not enough to address the clearmistakes that have been made and ensure thatno oreign oenders are orgotten; rather,the detention and deportation o oreign ex-oenders are to be dramatically expanded.

A secret policy o blanket detention o all whomeet the criteria or deportation was adopted,

later ound to be unlawul by the courts. TheCriminal Casework Directorate o the UKBA wassuddenly expanded many times over, and newand under-trained caseworkers seem to havecontributed to an atmosphere o chaos. ManyBritish nationals were unlawully detained,sometimes purely on the basis o having beenborn abroad. One o many unlawul detentionactions initiated by LDSGs litigation projectwith Pierce Glynn Solicitors led to a Britishcitizen settling out o court or 100,000, aterhaving been detained or 18 months, despitetelling the UKBA that he was British.8

8 Pierce Glynn website, 30 July 2010, http://www.pierceglynn.co.uk/news_1.htm.

SoMe SoRT oF poLICy

DeCISIon neeDeDIdfit dtti i litical ctt

The extreme political pressure on the UKBA hasled to the extended detention o many other peoplewho would never otherwise have been detained.The blanket detention policy meant that actorsthat would count against detention were ignored.Even since it has been revoked, the culture thatthis blanket policy represented has remainedin place. People with severe mental disordershave continued to be detained, oten until theyhave deteriorated to the point o needing to besectioned under the Mental Health Act. When theyhave been released rom their section, they haveroutinely been re-detained. Recognised reugeeshave been detained, oten leading to protractedbattles in the courts over whether they could bedeported without breaching their human rights.9

When detainees have won their appeals againstdeportation, the UKBA has routinely appealed andreused to release them.10

9 See testimony o Arben Draga on p16.10 See testimony o Anthony Suntharesh on p11.

Ruth from Jamaica,detained 14 months

Ive been detained since last year, the 29th of June. Fourteenmonths. I call the UK my home because Im living here forthirteen years. My little son, he grow like all the time here,going full time education here. And it really affects hiseducation and sometimes he call me crying. It really hurts toknow my family is out there living like that worrying about me.

I think separated from our kids is very hard. If you are amother, and all of these years its just you and your kids.

Im mummy and daddy for my kids and to separate from mykids like that, it really hurts. Sometimes I call my son and hesays Mum I dont have any money Im broke; I havent eatenenough food today. I feel like, its like something movesfrom my heart.

Riw idfit dtti


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But the biggest faw in the logic o blanketdetention is the ailure to recognise the barriersto deporting people to certain countries. LDSGsresearch has shown that almost hal o peopledetained or over a year are rom our countries:

Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Somalia. Forced returnsto Somalia have not generally been possibleor many years, initially due to the lack oa sae route, and subsequently because theEuropean Court o Human Rights has beenstopping individual removals, pending theresolution o several test cases on saety issues.Only a ew Somalis who ailed to apply to theEuropean Court have been orcibly returned. Thereluctance o the Algerian and Iranian Embassiesto grant travel documents to allow theirnationals to be returned is well documented.11For example, HM Inspectorate o Prisonsencountered:

An Algerian who had been held or over threeyears, [who] had been reused travel documentsby the Algerian Embassy three times, eventhough his UKBA caseworker accepted that hehad been complying. Although not disclosed tothe detainee, his le noted that there had been anumber o cases where removal o a person hadnot been possible due to the intransigence othe Algerian Embassy.12

Even within the UKBA there has been conusionas to why undeportable people were being

detained. Documents released in the unlawuldetention hearing o a non-compliant Iraniandetainee, FR, revealed that only eight monthsinto his detention the Chie Immigration Ocerhad complained that he was blocking a bed thatcould so better and more productively be usedThe legitimacy o long-term detention must beunderpinned by either a realistic prospect oremoval or i there is a signicant risk to thepublic. Neither applies in this case.13 Sensiblewords, resolutely ignored. FRs release was

vetoed, and he was detained or a urther 26months, leaving another ocer wondering whatpolicy-makers think that we should do with thistype o case under the existing legislation.14

11 Further similar cases are documented in LDSGs dossiers o casestudy evidence, atwww.ldsg.org.uk.

12 Report on an announced inspection o Harmondsworth Immigra-tion Removal Centre, 11 15 January 2010 by HM Chie Inspec-

tor o Prisons, p32.13 Anonymous Chie Immigration Ofcer, quoted in R (on the ap-plication o FR), [2009] EWHC 2094 (QB), High Court o JusticeQueens Bench Division, 7 August 2009, para. 39.

14 Anonymous HM Inspector, quoted in ibid, para. 50.

We end up blocking up detentionspace with somebody we cannotremove.More than ever that pointsto some sort o policy decision beingneeded.15

FRs detention was nally ruled to be unlawulby the High Court, and he was released ateralmost three years.

The UKBA has estimated that a th o theoutstanding Legacy cases o pre-2007 asylumclaims cannot currently be resolved as there areexternal actors which prevent the Agency romeither removing the applicants or allowing themto stay in the UK.16 These external actors are inmany cases likely to be barriers to removal suchas obtaining travel documents. The UKBA toldthe National Audit Oce that it is exploringoptions to conclude these cases;17 the nature othese options is not specied.

15 Ibid.16 National Audit Ofce, Management o Asylum Claims by the UKBorder Agency, 23 January 2009, p9: http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0809/management_o_asylum_appl.aspx.

17 Ibid.

Anthony Suntharesh

Anthony ed Sri Lanka where he had beentortured in prison for four years, and his familymurdered by the army. He was given refugeestatus in the UK in 2001. He has a ve year old

son who is British. He was detained in Sep-

tember 2008 after nishing a short sentencefor criminal damage, for which he was initiallygiven a suspended sentence. He won his caseagainst deportation in September 2009, but isstill detained while he waits for the Home Of-ces appeal to be heard.

Why they keep me here? They can only keep people herewho have no refugee status or no legal status. Now I won mycase, I got refugee status, I got no deportation order. Theyhave the right to appeal, but they cant keep me here, theykeep me here for what? This is like second punishment, thirdpunishment is if they send me to Sri Lanka and Im going to

die. Ill be executed by the government, thats why they gaveme refugee status in this country.

Every time my son visits me it breaks my heart, and I cantexplain to him because he is too young to understand. Hethink Im working here, thats what we told him. Every timehe asks why you dont take me to school daddy? Okay,they punish me, but he has done nothing wrong, he is onlyve years old. UKBA treats us like we come from anotherplanet.


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In March 2009 the UKBA nally responded tolobbying by detention organisations and beganto publish statistics on how long it detainedmigrants. Until then, it had reused to compilethis inormation, claiming that the cost involvedwould be disproportionate. UKBA publishesquarterly snapshots o how long currentdetainees had been in detention on a given day.

According to the most recent snapshot, 245people had been detained or over a year on 30June 2010.18 However, the statistics are fawed,as they exclude people whom the UKBA haschosen to detain in prisons. Research by LDSGand other charities has suggested that some othe longest-term detainees are held in prisons.19

As a result, the ocial statistics understate thetrue extent o indenite detention.

At the international level, the EuropeanUnions move towards a harmonised asylumand immigration system has included settingan upper time limit or detention. The Returns

Directive o June 2008 sets a limit o 18 months.It has been much criticised by monitoringorganisations or setting the limit too high, andindeed has led several countries to increasethe maximum period that migrants can bedetained. Many countries continue to haveshort time limits however: in France migrantscan only be detained or 32 days.20 The UK has

18 Home Ofce, Control o Immigration, Quarterly Statistical Sum-mary, United Kingdom, April June 2010, http://rds.homeo-fce.gov.uk/rds/pds10/immiq210.pd.

19 LDSG, Gatwick Detainees Welare Group, Dover Detainee Visi-tor Group, Haslar Visitors Group and Liverpool Prisons Visiting

Group, Indefnite detention in the UK, June 2009, http://www.detainedlives.org/wp-content/uploads/ldsgreport-0609.pd.20 European Council on Reugees and Exiles, Returns Directive: EU

Fails to uphold human rights, 18 June 2008, http://www.ecre.org/fles/ECRE%20press%20release%20Returns%20Dir.pd.

derogated rom the Returns Directive and willnot implement it.

Political disquiet over indenite detentionbegan with the publication o the DetainedLives report in January 2009. The growingcrystallisation o concerns regarding the civilliberties implications o the practice coincided

with a series o High Court rulings and criticismsby infuential bodies. LDSG distributed thereport widely to MPs and policy-makers, andencouraged supporters o the campaign to writeto their MPs.

I believe the current system isconused, inequitable, unjust andadministratively chaotic, working tothe detriment o the British taxpayer,legitimate migrants and illegal

immigrants alike Mark Field MP21

The issue o indenite detention was on thepolitical map when it was discussed or the rsttime in Parliament during the rst reading o theBorders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill on 11February 2009. LDSG had sent the report andbrieed peers in advance o the debate, and LordsHylton, Griths and Ramsbotham and BaronessQuin expressed their concern at the reportsndings.

21 Letter to Detained Lives supporter, 9 March 2009.

Imran Uddin Give me a Chance


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Will the Government setstatutory time limits or detentionprior to deportation or moregenerally? Such limits exist inseveral European Union states, otenspeciying six months or less. -

Lord Hylton22

The campaign gained urther momentumwhen the Liberal Democrats 2010 generalelection maniesto included a pledge to endthe detention o individuals or whom removalis not possible or imminent.23 This pledgewas consistent with higher prole pledges toend the detention o children and grant anearned amnesty or asylum seekers, adding upto a recognition that civil liberties must apply

to all, including oreigners and regardless opopularity. LDSG has worked closely with LiberalDemocrat Parliamentarians throughout thecampaign, and a ringe meeting is planned orthe party conerence in September 2010.

My Liberal Democrat colleaguesand I believe that the practice oindefnite detention is inhumane.

Lynne Featherstone MP24

Indenite immigration detention remains amarginal political issue. Mainstream politiciansand media are yet to be convinced that the civilliberties o non-British citizens are also worthyo concern. Nevertheless, the new governmentsocus on cutting wasteul public spendingand rejection o the previous governmentsencroachments on civil liberties presentimportant opportunities to increase the politicalpressure. The Home Oce spending cuts havealready impacted on detention policy, with thecancellation o all three planned new detentioncentres. The time is right to make the case or

a more pragmatic and humane approach toimmigration control that does not ignore therights o people living in the UK who are notBritish citizens.

22 Hansard 4 Mar 2009, Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill,

Committee Stage, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldhansrd/text/90304-0009.htm .23 Liberal Democrats, Maniesto 2010:Change that works or you,

May 2010, p77 .24 Letter to Detained Lives supporter, 15 April 2010.

Imran Uddin from Stratfordand Pakistan, detained 20months

Ive been here since I was a minor. I been to primary school,

junior school, secondary school, everything, all my familysties, I got three sisters, my mum and dad they passed away,they died, they are buried here. Since arriving in the UKIve never been back to Pakistan, so I dont even know whatit looks like. I didnt apply for a passport because I wasnttravelling anywhere. I havent been outside of the UK since Icome here. If I had a passport I wouldnt be here. So basicallya passport is worth more than a mans life. Just because Ihavent got that red book Ive been here for 18 months. Itdrives you insane.

I have been detained from 12 of November, 2008. I did aten week custodial sentence for driving while disqualied. Idid ve weeks in East London in November of 2008, and afterthat they held me in detention and Ive been in detention eversince. I come downstairs, they took my property out for lettingme go and then back to immigration and they said no we areholding him. That was 2008 and its 2010 now. They cantissue me no ticket, they cant issue me no travel documents,they cant issue me nothing. But they still wont issue me bail,they still wont issue me temporary release, they wont giveme nothing. So if you cant do something to someone at leastlet him out until you can do something.

Weve got a 20 feet by 60 feet yard where we can walk about,thats all weve got so that we can get our fresh air. Yourenot allowed to smoke in your room and after 11 oclock they

lock the doors so even if youre a smoker you cant smoke. Atthe press of a button they move me from six different centres,that comes out of nowhere. They just move you and you startall over again in that centre and then after four months theymove you again. Its just Oh, Immigrations orders.

If I get out the rst thing Ill do is go to see my family, spendtime with my family, obviously. Go and have dinner withthem, go and sit down with them and just stay with my familyevery day. My family is there with me all the time, they willstick by me to the end. They worry that Ill end up dead. Sothey are saying theyd rather spend their savings on a lawyerand get me out. Im not from a rich family, theyre just

working class people. But all the money they saved up forwhatever reason, they put it all in lawyers, they already put3000 into lawyers, when it gets to the High Court that will beanother 1000 per hearing and theyd rather pay that becauseIm the only brother theyve got and Im the youngest in thefamily, and theyd rather pay that than see me dead.

I cant read or write the language in Pakistan. Where amI going to start? You know, Ive been to primary school inEngland, junior school, secondary school in England, Ive neverbeen back to Pakistan since I arrived here. I dont know whatit looks like. Im going to just wander around the streets,where am I going to go? Am I going to go left, am I going to

go right? I cant read the signs, I cant read the language, Icant write, I havent got a hope in hell.


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Th mst sris ad sstaid challg tidfit dtti has cm thrgh thcrts. A ractic that tw ars ag hadacqird th aarac a iitabl act immigrati ctrl has b ratdlcdmd b th High Crt as lawl. Ia sris jdgmts r th last 16 mths,th High Crt has hld that dtti r arswith rsct drtati is lawl.A bd cas law has b stablishd thatsts aramtrs, albit t alwas clar s,t hw lg th uKBA ca dtai. As a rslt,it ca rhas b said that idfit dtti,with th ll imlicatis rstraidrcis stat wr, lgr ists iqit th sam wa.

Until December 2008, the situation appearedvery dierent. Few unlawul detention

challenges had been brought, and almost all hadbeen lost. A controversial judgment known as A(Somalia) had signed o as lawul the detentionor three and a hal years o a Somali with noapparent prospects o removal. In its wake, theHigh Court had ound other shorter periods odetention to also be lawul. LDSG had produceda series o dossiers, based on case studyevidence, documenting the barriers to removalo detainees rom certain nationalities.25 Workingwith Bail or Immigration Detainees, LDSG hadidentied and reerred our Algerian detaineesor a successul unlawul detention challenge inJanuary 2008.26 Yet ew solicitors were bringing

unlawul detention actions, and the majority odetainees had no idea that they could challengetheir detention in the High Court. There seemedno alternative to the endless round o bailapplications to the Tribunal, with the consequentendless reusals that detainees described in theDetained Lives report.27

On 19 December 2008 the High Court oundthat the UKBA had been unlawully operatinga policy o a presumption o detention or

25 Summaries o the dossiers are available athttp://www.ldsg.org.uk/fles/uploads/dossierssummaries0708.pd.

26 A & Ors v SSHD[2008] EWHC 142 (Admin), 21 January 2008.27 LDSG, op. cit., p24-7.

oreign ex-oenders.28 Anyone whom the UKBAdecided to try to deport would be detained:secret guidelines excluded rom considerationo release virtually all [oreign ex-oenders]who had been sentenced to imprisonment29. The1971 Immigration Act, and the UKBAs publishedpolicy, set out a presumption o liberty; thepolicy that was actually ollowed required theopposite. UKBA documents disclosed to thecourt revealed that, in the Home Secretarys

28 Abdi et al, [2008] EWHC 3166 (Admin), 19 December 2008.29 The Queen on the application o WL (Congo) 1 and 2 and KM

(Jamaica), [2010] EWCA Civ 111, High Court o Justice Court oAppeal, 19 February 2010, para. 45.

enouGH IS

enouGH HeReLgal challgs t lawl dtti

Rabah from Algeria,detained for 18 months.Rabah has lived in Britainsince 1994.

England is my home, where I have been living twenty years.Ive got no other home. Ive got a father, Ive got a brother,Ive got children, two daughters, ex-wife, family, a big family.What I think about is what the government is doing to us: weare people, we dont deserve this. I get married with Britishcitizen, had children, bought a house, I worked so hard yearsand years. My mum passed away here, I didnt even thinkto bury her in her country so I buried her here. Weve beensuch long time, we worked for this country, we used to feellike citizens, we worked, we pay taxes, we build a family andthen we didnt expect this.

So many people they are thinking about suicide, other peoplecutting themselves, people going to hospital every day nearly,people throwing themselves from the top, things you see withyour eyes and you heard. Im trying to hold myself, but whatI see, it af fects you, you know.

I dont see no future. I dont see no out from here. I mean,I dont know, I tried everything: solicitors, papers, lettersexplaining, life stories, immigration lawyers, everywhere . Italked to everybody but Ive got no answer. Nobody gives meany answer, Ive nothing. Living in blank. We are life sentencehere. Ive got no tomorrow here. Every day is the same.


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words, since April 2006 the BIA [now theUKBA] has been applying a near blanket banon release regardless o whether removal can beachieved and the level o risk to the public.30Even within the Home Oce this position wasnot thought to be tenable and that IND [also theUKBA]was very vulnerable to legal challenge.31

The appeal in February 2010 ound that theunpublished policy rom November 2007until September 2008 was not merely o apresumption o detention but constituted ablanket policy,32 and that this was unlawul.The ruling also reiterated that keeping secret apolicy that conficted with published policy wasunlawul. There was at a high level a ailureto have proper regard to, i not a disregard o,the legal obligations o the Department [UKBA],and the ailure does not appear to have beenattributable merely to oversight.33 However, it

ound that the detainees bringing the case wouldhave been detained anyway under the publishedpolicy with the presumption o liberty, so theirdetention was lawul and could continue.

December 2008: LDSG developed a litigationstrategy with Pierce Glynn Solicitors

It was in this gloomy atmosphere that LDSG metwith Pierce Glynn Solicitors in December 2008to develop a litigation strategy. LDSG was incontact with the majority o long-term detainees inColnbrook IRC, the highest security detention centreand thereore a hub or indenite detention. Couldthe right cases be brought to generate positivecase law?

Challenging the detention o Somalis seemedthe place to start, notwithstanding the terribleprecedent o A (Somalia). LDSG was visiting severalyoung Somalis who had been detained or two tothree years. Opinions varied as to whether and orwhat periods it had been possible to deport peopleto Mogadishu, perhaps the most dangerous cityon earth; a widely circulated anecdote told o a

Saudi deportation fight that had turned back aterbeing shot at by gunmen at the airport. By now theEuropean Court o Human Rights was issuing lettersto Somali applicants stopping removals, pendinga hearing that in turn was pending domesticlitigation. Only Somalis who ailed to apply to theEuropean Court could be deported. However, noSomali detainees seemed to be granted bail: LibanAli Kadir told the Detained Lives researchers thatthe way I look at is, Im doing a lie sentence.34

30 Submission by the Home Secretary to the Prime Minister, quotedin ibid, para. 45.

31 Advice rom counsel to Home Ofce, 18 September 2006,quoted in ibid, para. 40.

32 Ibid, para. 45.33 Ibid, para. 6.34 Liban Ali Kadir, quoted in LDSG, op cit, p18.

Over the next ew months, LDSG reerred ten Somalidetainees to Pierce Glynn and other solicitors. Theproject was soon extended to other nationalities.No clear criteria or unlawul detention existed, soit was necessary to monitor the emerging case lawand develop guidelines or identiying suitable cases.Meanwhile, LDSG sta and volunteers were holding

regular on-site workshops in Harmondsworth andColnbrook and speaking daily on the telephone todetainees. Suitable cases were identied, urtherpaperwork was obtained rom clients, and casehistories were written up and sent to potentialsolicitors. As the numbers o potential casesincreased, LDSG approached our leading publiclaw and immigration solicitors to discuss makingreerrals or unlawul detention, in order to increasepotential capacity. Since LDSG only works withdetainees in the London area, it was also essentialto work with other detention organisations aroundthe country to share expertise, so LDSG produced

written guidelines on identiying potential unlawuldetention cases and delivered presentations atnetwork meetings.

December 2008 December 2009: LDSGreerred 28 detainees or unlawul detentionactions. 13 were released as a result o theseactions. In total 21 have been released.

In case ater case, the period o detention was ruledunlawul. The timeliness o the project was revealed

shortly beore the rst o these cases came to court,when the appeal was heard o a Somali involved inthe secret policy case, who had been detained or30 months. Mr Justice Davis reminded the UKBA thatimmigration detention is not to be used as a disguisedorm o preventative detention or the public saety.35He ound that the UKBAs eorts to deport Somalisto Mogadishu despite the position o the EuropeanCourt o Human Rights shows a nice (or perhaps,changing the meaning o the word, not so nice) regardon the part o the Home Oce to the letter o the law(and) an almost total disregard to the spirit behind theEuropean Court o Human Rights stance.36

The time has come in this particularcase to say that enough is enoughhere. The relevant legal proceedingsare likely to go on or a long timepotentially even running into yearsby now a reasonable period o timeor detaining him has elapsed.

Mr Justice Davis37

35 Mr Justice Davis, The Queen on the application oAbdi, EWHC1324, High Court o Justice Queens Bench Division, 22 May 2009,para. 41.

36 Ibid, para. 73.37 Ibid, para. 76.


18/3216


During 2009, our urther Somali detaineesreerred by LDSG were released by the HighCourt, including two who had been interviewedor the Detained Lives research. This has createda solid body o case law o the limits on thelawulness o detention when deportation is aremote possibility.

(E)nough is now enough so aras this claimant is concerned. Theelasticity o statutory provisions,having regard to their underlyingpurpose, does not warrant a urtherperiod o detention. The elastic hasbroken.

Mr Justice Charles38

August 2009: LDSG calls on UKBA toreconsider detaining Somalis.

Despite these judgments, there seemed to be nochange in UKBA practice in detaining Somalis.LDSG wrote to the Strategic Director Criminalityand Detention suggesting that UKBA reviewtheir policies in the light o the case law inorder to avoid all Somali detainees having toindividually litigate in the High Court. Thereply stated that the UKBA did not regard itas appropriate to have a blanket policy on aparticular nationality.

The new body o case law on the limits olawul detention has since extended to othernationalities and circumstances. For example,in the case o a Chinese detainee called Wangwho had been detained or 30 months while theEmbassy reused to issue a travel document,the High Court held that on any view that isa very long time and right at the outer limit othe period o detention which can be justied

except in the case o someone who has in thepast committed very serious oences and whomay go on to commit urther such oences orwho poses a risk to national security.39 OrderingMr Wangs release, Mr Justice Mitting went onto note that:

38 MM, [2009] EWHC 2353 (Admin), High Court o JusticeQueens Bench Division, 22nd July 2009, para. 46.

39 Mr Justice Mitting, The Queen on the application o Wang,[2009] EWHC 1578 (Admin) High Court o Justice QueensBench Division, 5 June 2009, para. 27.

It is a disturbing eature o this casethat a young man who apparentlydid not suer rom any mentalcondition when taken into detentionnow does so and that his continueddetention may be a contributorycause to the development andcontinuance o that condition.40

In the case o FR, an Iranian with no previous

criminal convictions who had been detainedor 34 months and prosecuted three times orreusing to cooperate with removal, Mr JusticeFoskett held that i he considered whether theSecretary o State has proved on the balance oprobabilities that there is a reasonable prospecto securing the Claimants removal withina reasonable time, then the answer on theevidence beore me is clear the Secretary oState has not established this.41

40 Ibid., para 33.41 Mr Justice Foskett, R (on the application o FR), [2009] EWHC

2094 (QB), High Court o Justice Queens Bench Division, 7August 2009, para. 71.

Arben Draga from Kosovo,detained three years andsix months

Arben came to Britain when he was aged 16.His claim for asylum was accepted, and he wasgranted refugee status. After he nished aprison sentence he was detained for 9 monthsand released. He was detained for a secondtime in November 2007. He is still waiting forhis appeal against deportation to be heard.

Immigration, they ruined my life up here. I just starting toremember what my life was like before, I was living on myown, I had a girl, I had a loved one. I lost everything I had,I lost my house, so I lost everything. I feel depressed andlonely, stuff like that. I have days sometimes when I dontfeel like getting out of my room, I want to stay alone. Iwant to get out, to get fresh air, I get frustrated you know

sometimes. Keep hearing voices at night time. I never gotthat before.

I dont see a future you know, I dont see a future. It feelslike Im locked up for life or something, thats my future. Ind most shocking they treat people like this. I never knewsomeone can be treated like this. Like be detained for years. Imean were human beings. Human beings should be given achance. Thats what I believe. Thats a democracy. Ive neverseen this before.


19/3217


The case law does not amount to clear guidelinesas to when detention becomes unlawul. The

judgments consistently agree that each casemust be judged on its own merits. The only clearrules o thumb that have emerged are that thethresholds are high: all o the unlawul detentionrulings concerned detainees held or more thana year, and in most cases or much longer. Thecourts have not held that detention in thesecases was unlawul throughout, but that it onlybecame so ater many months or years, evenwhere the barriers to deportation were evident

rom the start. The Court o Appeal has oundthat a detainee rom the Democratic Republic oCongo could be lawully detained or three yearsand eight months where he was not cooperatingwith deportation,42 although the Supreme Courtwill soon hear an appeal. A recent case initiatedby LDSG has claried that, notwithstandingthis ruling, non-cooperation is only one o theactors to be taken into account in assessingwhether detention is unlawul.43 Attempts tochallenge indenite detention o people with

42 The Queen on the application o WL (Congo) 1 and 2 and KM(Jamaica), [2010] EWCA Civ 111, High Court o Justice Court oAppeal, 19 February 2010.

43 The Queen on the application o HY, [2010] EWHC 1678, HighCourt o Justice Queens Bench Division, 12 April 2010.

Detained Lives launch event, January 2009

mental disorders44 and people diagnosed as HIVpositive,45 have also ailed.

Nevertheless, the change in atmosphere has beenelt. The great majority o unlawul detentioncases initiated by LDSG have not reached theHigh Court. In many cases, the UKBA haveagreed to release the detainee in the daysleading up to the hearing. One detainee withserious mental health problems, whose onlyoence had been to use a alse document, wasreleased ater more than our years in detention

on the morning o his High Court hearing. Jaar,who eatured in the Detained Lives report, wasalso released beore his case came to court,ater our years and ten months in detention.Likewise, the case law seems to be infuencingthe Tribunal to grant bail more oten in long-term detention cases, including Daniel and Rezarom the Detained Lives report.

Sixteen o the 24 detainees interviewed or theDetained Lives report have been released. Onlythree remain in detention.

44 RA, [2009] EWHC 2496 (Admin), 13 October 2009.45 The Queen on the application o TN (Vietnam), CJ (Dominica)

and MD (Angola), [2010] EWHC 2184 (Admin), 30 July 2010.

The launch o Detained Lives highlighted to the legal community the increasing use o indefnitedetention, the increasing length o time detainees were being held and the adverse eects ontheir mental health and welare. Lawyers responded strategically via LDSGs litigation projectby bringing judicial reviews in as many cases as possible, with a ocus on the worst cases:those with the longest periods o detention and those experiencing serious adverse health eects.These ranged rom detainees with inadequately treated HIV to psychoses, some held or overour years. In my frms experience, UKBA has generally responded by deending indeensibleperiods o detention, only releasing detainees or settling cases at the doors o the court or whenordered to do so by a judge. This has resulted in a series o High Court judgments, clariying theparameters o unlawul detention. Many have been positive, at least in part.

It is disappointing that there seems to be a gradual slide towards longer periods o detentionbeing treated as acceptable, but this appears ripe or challenge. The challenge ahead is whetherthere will be public unding or lawyers to bring these important cases.

S Willma, pirc Gl Slicitrs


20/3218


Th ractic idfit dtti has bsbjct t mtig criticisms rm a arit athritati mitrig bdis. Almstr iddt bd that has isitd Britishdtti ctrs r th last tw ars hascmmtd th trm rids that lar big dtaid ad th lack aart

rgrss i rslig thir cass. Ths ridsar almst rcdtd, bth itratialli th era ui ad histricall iBritai.

The HM Chie Inspector o Prisons has beenthe most vocal domestic monitor to criticiseindenite detention. Reporting directly to theHome Secretary, the Inspector has tended tobe a orthright critic o aspects o detentionpolicy and practice, but her remit has requireda ocus on detention conditions, rather thanpolicy. However, in examining casework bythe Criminal Casework Directorate (CCD), theInspector ound that in Campseld averagelengths o stay appeared to be increasing. Somedetainees were in eect detained indenitelybecause there was little prospect o removal.46Similarly, at Harmondsworth and Brook House,the length o detention and uncertaintyover cases caused considerable distress. Somedetainees continued to be detained or longperiods, despite no prospect o their imminentremoval.47

More positively, the Inspector noted that theteam o on-site UKBA administrative sta at

Brook House was complemented by two visitingcase owners rom the CCD who each attendedthe centre or two and a hal days a weekThis recent development had helped to progresscases.48 This ollows LDSGs recommendationin January 2009 that on-site Immigrationocers should be reintroduced into detentioncentres in order to improve communication withdetainees.49

46 HM Chie Inspector o Prisons (HMCIP), Report on an announcedinspection o Campsfeld House Immigration Removal Centre, 5 9October 2009, p5.47 HMCIP, Report on an announced inspection o Harmondsworth

Immigration Removal Centre, 11 15 January 2010, p31.48 HMCIP, Report on a ull announced inspection o Brook HouseImmigration Removal Centre, 15 19 March 2010, p31.49 LDSG, Detained Lives, January 2009, p32.

However, the Inspector also expressed concernat the inappropriateness o detention acilitiesto the task o holding people or such longperiods. She criticised limited investment inactivities or detainees in Brook House, whichhad been designed on the assumption thatdetainees would stay or only a short time

beore removal or release.50

She was veryconcerned at the potential impact o the newwings at Harmondsworth, which opened in July2010 shortly ater the inspection, as providingprison-like accommodation, in small andsomewhat oppressive cells.51

This concern has been shared by IndependentMonitoring Boards (IMBs), volunteers appointedby the Home Secretary whose role is to monitordetention centres. The IMB or Harmondsworthhas observed that most detention centres:

now hold more people or longerthan they were ever intended toThis has implications or the regimeand activities.. (T)here is a constantdanger o detention centres beingrun in a more prison-like ashion.The most obvious maniestationo this is UKBAs policy - muchlamented by this and many otherboards - to build all uture IRCs toCategory B prison designs.52

The IMB or Harmondsworth also expressedconcern about the quality o the casework thatleads to someone being detained in the rstplace and that underpins their detention over along period, leading to detainees languishingin detention or months or more with nooreseeable prospect o release or deportation.53

50 HMCIP, Brook House, op. cit., p5.

51 HMCIP, Harmondsworth, op. cit., p5.52 Independent Monitoring Board or Harmondsworth Immigration

Removal Centre, 2009 Annual Report, May 2010, p6.53 Ibid.

FIRST ReSoRT, noT

LAST ReSoRTGrwig ccrs mitrig bdis


21/3219


The rationale behind indenite detention hasbeen severely criticised by the Working Groupon Arbitrary Detention o the United NationsHuman Rights Council. The Working Groupconcluded that the detention or our and ahal years o a Somali, also named Abdi, wasarbitrary, in terms that strike at the legitimacy othe wider practice o indenite detention. Notingthat it is dicult to think o circumstancesunder which this duration would not beexcessive, the Working Group concluded thatit certainly is in the present case, where theprospects o Mr. Abdis removal actually takingplace were dim rom the beginning and havebeen deteriorating since then.54

The Working Group noted the Governmentsarguments that suggested that Mr Abdi wasbeing detained as a security measure to protectthe public. This amounted to circumventing

the procedures available under domestic lawto impose security measures against dangerousoenders. Indenite public protection sentencesinvolve considerable saeguards such as reviewby the Parole Board, requiring the governmentto demonstrate an ongoing risk. By contrast, inthe immigration proceedings, the Governmentappears to be able to maintain Mr. Abdi indetention simply by pointing to the oencethat gave rise to his conviction. The use oimmigration detention as a security measureexploits the entirely ortuitous circumstancethat he is a oreigner to deprive him o theequal protection o the law on grounds ocitizenship.55

Such indefnite detention can onlybe qualifed as arbitrary.56

June 2009: The LDSG Director highlightedindefnite detention in the UK as a panelspeaker at a ringe meeting at the UNHCRNGO consultation meetings in Geneva. Aspart o an International Detention CoalitionDelegation, he raised concerns with theUNHCR Assistant High Commissioner -Protection, Erika Feller.

The Committee on Migration, Reugees andPopulation o the Parliamentary Assembly othe Council o Europe criticised in January 2010European states use o detention as an optiono rst resort and not last resort, (that) can be

54 Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mr. Mustaa Abdi v.United Kingdom o Great Britain and Northern Ireland, WorkingGroup on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 45/2006, U.N.Doc. A/HRC/7/4/Add.1 at 40 (2007), published February2009.

55 Ibid.56 Ibid.

prolonged, particularly where there is no practicaland imminent possibility o removal.57 In a reportthat took care not to criticise individual states,the UKs practice o indenite detention wasnevertheless singled out as one extreme.

June 2008: LDSG met with the PACERapporteur Ana Catarina Mendonca duringher visit to the UK. The report reers requentlyto LDSGs Detained Lives research.58

57 Committee on Migration, Reugees and Population, Parliamen-tary Assembly o the Council o Europe, The detention o asylumseekers and irregular migrants in Europe, 11 January 2010,

para. 5, http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc10/EDOC12105.htm.

58 Ibid., see ootnotes 33, 54, 138, 139, 140.

Rooney, from the MiddleEast, detained two yearsand eight months

After being interviewed for this report, Rooneywas granted refugee status and released.

I been [detained] two years, seven months, and two days.Sometimes I feel Im 70 years old and Im gonna die herethis place.

Now Im going back from minus, not from zero. Im minus,Im not zero because Im inside. When I going out, Ill bezero. Then when they give me paper to work, I become one.When I start work, Ill get two. When I meet someone, Ill bethree. When I have married, I get four. I get children, I getve. And my life getting better and better if it works that way.

I think of London as home because all the people I like live

in London. I think if I am depressed, stressed so much, I amgoing to go to Green Park, just go and walk around in thatarea and I feel comfortable. If I got all the stress in the worldI go there. You walk around and youll be happy because it sbeautiful.

I feel the future now behind me. I feel I passed the future. Theykill the four years, they miss four years, they destroy them.

All my clothes getting dirty and old, so I need to buy someclothes. One guy he got visit, I give him nice clothes for thevisit. The day he got deported, he said, please I been 18 yearsnot in my country, please let me go to my country look nice. I

said take it. Always I wear the prison stuff.

I went to the zoo in my country and I see lion. Lion look like acat because they didnt feed him properly. And I see him, and Isaid ah man, if you open the key for him and let him go live inthe jungle, he king of the jungle, he will be fat and big in twoweeks. I hate lock up anyone.


22/3220


The Committee reserved particular criticism orthe treatment o oreign ex-oenders. Theirdetention is inherently discriminatory, giventhat where states own nationals are no longer aserving prisoner and no longer pose a risk, theyare released.59 The report strongly emphasizedthe need or alternatives to detention to beused to a ar greater extent in order to complywith international law, with detention onlyused i less intrusive measures have been triedand ound insucient.60 Alternatives must beincorporated into a legal ramework in nationallaw, to ensure that they are always consideredbeore detention is used.

June 2010: LDSG Director spoke at the launchin Brussels o Jesuit Reugee Services Europe-wide research on vulnerability in detention.

These criticisms have emphasised the UKsisolation in routinely detaining migrants or

years. The UKBAs sensitivity to internationalmonitoring was demonstrated by its reusal,almost alone amongst EU states, to permitthe Jesuit Reugee Service access to detentioncentres or its European Commission-undedresearch into vulnerability in detention.61 It isclear rom this research, based on interviewswith 685 detainees in 23 countries, that nowhereelse in Europe are detainees held or years onanything like the scale o the UK.

59 Ibid., para. 23.60 Ibid., para. 8.61 Jesuit Reugee Service, Becoming Vulnerable in Detention, June

2010, http://www.detention-in-europe.org/.

Rashid Ali from Morocco,detained four years

Ive been four years locked up. I feel Im born in this world.You know I forget there are other people there. I forget they

have a society outside.I cooperated with them, I still be in detention. So I feel myselfI have been forced in this country because more than sixtimes Ive come to ee the country and they [keep] bringingme back here and they still force me in detention, they takingmy freedom away. Always they say same things. They haveno progress about my travel documents, they cant make mytravel documents, the Moroccan Embassy.

So I lost four years of my life you know what I mean? I comein detention about ve years ago when I was twenty six yearsold, now Im thirty one years old and I still locked up, you

know? I have no future my friend. I think if I back to mycountry, I hope I got a good future . I hope I get married, I getkids, I may have a good life, a good future, but to me I tell youI dont have a future now. Even I get released from this place Istill have no future. I cant support myself, I cant work.

Its too slow. You end up in this place and you stuck, youknow what I mean. The UK Border Agency here dont eventalk us about our problems. Because a lot of people theywant to go, like I want to go. They dont dealing with us, theyignore us.

Please stop, stop wasting tax payers money and

peoples life.

Ruhul Anam Turning the Table of Injustice


23/3221


Th last tw ars ha s widsradmdia crag ad ciil scit criticism immigrati dtti. High rfl adcti camaigig agaist th dtti childr has gratd a grwig rcti a crisis i dtti lic, ladig th calitigrmt t iitiat a riw hw t dth dtti amilis. I th grmtmaks gd its ldg t d th dtti childr, it will b th mst sigifcat stawa rm rliac dtti r dcads.

Indenite detention, largely aecting ex-oenders, has not received the same level omedia or public attention. Foreign ex-oendersare an unpopular group, and there has beenreluctance to see their civil liberties as worth

protecting, regardless o how extreme mightbe their treatment. But indenite detentionis increasingly seen as a symptom o aundamentally dysunctional detention systemand an example o the injustices o the UKstreatment o unwanted migrants. While thepolitical debate on immigration has increasinglyocused on the economic advantages anddisadvantages to the country, it has become vitalto challenge the terms o the debate, to questionwhat happens to bad migrants,62 those who arenot given asylum or a visa, yet cannot go home.

Given the unpopularity o oreign ex-oenders,

it was dicult to predict what response theDetained Lives campaign would receive. Yetrom the start, it was clear that the campaignresonated with many people and organisationssupporting detainees. Almost 300 peopleattended the launch event in January 2009, aroutstripping expectations.

62 See Connor Johnstons lucid analysis o the ailure o inter-national and domestic law to deend the rights o unpopularmigrants, Indefnite Immigration Detention: Can it be Justifed?,

Journal o Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, December2009, http://www.ldsg.org.uk/fles/uploads/ianlindefnitede-tention1209.pd.

LDSG secured media coverage on indefnitedetention in the Guardian, the New Statesmanand the Independent on Sunday.

The rst mainstream media coverage oindenite detention in Britain was the resulto the publication o LDSGs research. TheGuardian on 28 January 2009 describeddetainees dumped and orgotten in detentioncentres because political sensitivities meantthat they could not be deported or released.63The story eatured an interview with Ahmed

Abu Bakar Hassan, the Daruri political activistinterviewed or LDSGs research, who would bereleased three months later ater two and a hal

years in detention. Ahmed said:

You cant stand a single day. Everyday is the same, I dont know howwe are surviving.64

The New Statesman described LDSGs ndingsas astounding, and contrasted the ongoingpractice o indenite detention in the UK withPresident Obamas declared intention to closeGuantanamo Bay.65 The Independent on Sunday

subsequently reported, in an article quotingLDSG, that hundreds o migrants are being heldin prison in all but name or years without anyidea o when they will be released.66

63 Jo Adetunji, The Guardian,Asylum Seekers dumped andorgotten in detention centres, 28 January 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/28/asylum-seekers-detention.

64 Ibid., http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/28/oreign-detainee-case-study.

65 Liana Wood, New Statesman, The State theyre in, 5 March2009, http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/03/immigration-detained-report.

66 Emily Dugan and Jane Merrick, Independent on Sunday, Locked

up indefnitely, 14 February 2010, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/locked-up-indefnitely-the-prisoners-who-have-committed-no-crime-1899049.html.

We THe DeTAIneeS

ARe ALSo HuMAnSCamaigig agaist idfit dtti


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LDSG has worked with detainees to authorarticles or openDemocracy, Red Pepper andMigrant Voice.

The most resonant voices raised againstindenite detention have come rom insidedetention. Detainees have spoken out against theinjustice o the practice, oten using their realnames and stories to draw attention to the widerissue. As well as working with detainees towardstheir release by reerring them to solicitors andassisting them to apply or accommodation andsupport outside detention, LDSG has enabledpeople in detention to campaign againsttheir treatment. Through recorded telephoneinterviews with LDSG, detainees have expressedtheir perspectives on the detention systemand taken a public stand. Quotes rom these

interviews are included throughout this report.

In an article on openDemocracy by LDSGsDirector, Mohammed described the pain andabsurdity o his two years in detention, duringwhich time he had never seen anyone removedto Somalia.67 Mohammed also contributed hisown article or Migrant Voice newspaper.68 Inanother article by LDSG or Red Pepper, JamesChristian spoke o his 39 months in detention,ater serving a prison sentence o six weeks.69LDSG has worked with ve detainees topublicise their stories and campaign or theirrelease, asking supporters to write to their MPs.Three have been released, but two remain indetention.70

Slow decision-making andrising backlogs are bad news ortaxpayers and genuine reugeesalike.

David Burrowes MP71

Release has not silenced the people who havelost years o their lives to indenite detention.Former detainees have spoken at LDSGsDetained Lives campaign roadshows around theUK. Roadshows have been held in partnershipwith local detention and asylum organisations,universities and aith groups, in Glasgow,

67 Quoted in Jerome Phelps, No Release: Lives in limbo, openDe-mocracy, 10 May 2010, http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/jerome-phelps/no-release-lives-in-limbo .

68 Migrant Voice, June 2010. See Mohammeds testimony on p23.69 Jerome Phelps, Red Pepper, Trapped Waiting, 16 April 2010,

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Trapped-waiting . See Jamestestimony on p25.

70 Seewww.detainedlives.org.uk or details o the campaigns toree Anthony Suntharesh and Arben Draga.

71 Letter to Detained Lives supporter, 17 March 2009.

Brighton, Oxord, London and Sheeld. Theseroadshows involved close collaboration withpartner organisations, including dratingpress releases and invitations or local MPs,organising the venue, and sharing the platormat the event. New working relationships havebeen established with organisations aroundthe country that share LDSGs commitment tochallenging detention.

The barrister [at my bail hearing]said, why you have to detain peoplewho you cant deport and who areno danger to anyone? I you canshow that you can deport him withinthree months, air enough you candeport him. But hundreds o people

like me who you cant deport,whats the point in holding them?And they mess up all their lives.Im not the same person no more.Youre not like you used to be,happy and jolly, they mess you upcompletely. I get panics, I dont wantto come out o my house, I wantto stay indoors. Ive been not in agood state. Imagine i that barristerdidnt come, Id still be rotting inthere. I want to make sure that what

happened to me dont happen toother people.

Imran Uddin, detained October 2008 - July 2010

Reza, the artist whose work had provided thevisual images o the Detained Lives reportand campaign, told a meeting in Brightonduring the volcanic disruption to air travel thatdetention was like being stranded at the airport,not or hours or days but or years. LDSG hasestablished the Detained Lives Forum or ormer

detainees to share experiences, prepare orpublic speaking and contribute to the directiono the campaign.


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Some o us detainees have beendetained or over three years withno prospect o removal or anyevidence o uture release. Thereis no justifcation whatsoever ordetaining us or such period o time.Our lives incidentally have beenstalled without any hope o living alie, having a amily or any uture.More oten than not, we are beingdetained even when our amily

(wie and children) are resident inthe United Kingdom, depriving us ohaving a lie with our amily. We thedetainees are also humans.

Statement by detainees reusing ood in Campsfeld IRC, 2August 2010

LDSG worked with the social justice mediagroup Ctl+Alt+Shit to produce a short animatedlm on indenite detention, starring severaldetainees involved with the campaign. The lm,1000 Voices, combined recorded quotes rom

detainees with innovative animations, to conveythe distorted world o detention. The lm haswon three international awards, including the

Silver Dragon or Best Animated Short at theKrakow Film Festival 2010. It has also beenscreened at 14 other international estivals andcontinues to highlight the devastating impacto indenite detention to audiences around theworld.

I am very ortunate and happy tonot be in that place, because I knowthere are people who are still there,although the UKBA know thereis no prospect o removing them.I applied to the UK to grant measylum. Its been 16 months, theynever said yes or no. I am happyto not be inside, but ater beingthree years in detention and now

ater two years being monitoredby electronic [tagging] device, fveyears o my lie, I would like to goand study. I am so happy to workand pay taxes.

Shirazi, detained July 2006 - June 2009

Detention organisations have increasingly workedtogether to challenge indenite detention. Inresponse to the UKBAs ailure or several yearsto publish statistics on how long people weredetained, ve organisations collaborated togather statistics on their service users over sixmonths. The resulting joint report revealed thatorganisations were supporting 50 detainees whohad been held or more than two years. Thisgure had more than doubled rom 21 in only sixmonths.72

Indenite detention and the Detained Livescampaign continue to spark new collaborationand campaigning. In July 2010, twenty-veorganisations rom across civil society signeda joint letter to the Home Secretary and

Immigration Minister calling or detention reorm.The letter identies prolonged detention as a keyaspect o the current crisis in detention. The letterwas coordinated by LDSG, Gatwick Detainees

Welare Group and the Association o Visitorsto Immigration Detainees, and developed out oLDSGs plea or supporters to write to the newgovernment to call or detention reorm. The lettercontinues to attract new signatories as a jointstatement on the website o the Detention Forum,a new network or organisations working togetherto challenge the legitimacy odetention.73

72 LDSG, Gatwick Detainees Welare Group, Dover Detainee VisitorGroup, Haslar Visitors Group and Liverpool Prisons VisitingGroup, Indefnite detention in the UK, June 2009, http://www.detainedlives.org/wp-content/uploads/ldsgreport-0609.pd.

73 See http://detentionorum.wordpress.com/.

Mohammed from Somalia,detained two years and sixmonths.

No-one has really spoken to me or got to know me as a

person, its only paperwork. My case-worker dont knowme. She may have pictures of me, and my name and dateof birth, but she dont know me as a person. They sit injudgment from these things. Ive put in seven or eight ap-plications to see them, they are just here in reception, in thebuilding, and I cannot see them.

It is just a complete waste of time, most of the people heresay its just killing time. That is what we are doing and timeis not supposed to be killed. Time is all we have in life.Because if time nishes, you die, thats it, youre dead. Soyou know, these two years will never come back to my life.

I know Ive fallen short of the governments expectation ofme. And Im sorry for that. But at the end of the day, Im ahuman being, for the mistakes Ive made, all Im asking isone chance. I cannot be deported back to my country, Ivestayed this long in detention. Two years of my life have beentaken, if this is to show me or to teach me a lesson, it has tobe enough. I want to be free once more. All I want is to livelife and have a family and do the things that the other peopledo. I pray to God that this will come to nish and I will havemy freedom one day, and walk on the streets as a free man.


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Th ractic dtaiig migrats idfitlis a ailr. e rm th arrw it iw immigrati ctrl, it dmstratsth difclt mig hma bigs acrssatial brdrs at will. A grmt that hasdtaid 28 migrats r mr tha thr arsca hardl b altd r tghss; bt whthr ars is still t gh t drt thm,th basic ratial has t b qstid.

And questioned it has been, rom a wide rangeo standpoints. The common root o all o thesecriticisms has been a simple question: i the aimo immigration detention is to deport people,why detain people who cant be deported? Thisquestion has resonated unanswered throughoutthis report, rom detainees who cannotunderstand why so many years o their livesare slipping away, rom international bodiesmonitoring the UKs human rights obligations,rom the courts considering the limits ogovernment power. I two thirds o detainees

who havent been deported ater a year arentgoing to be deported, why are they detained?

The successes o legal challenges have not beenmatched by concerted political pressure on thegovernment. The unpopularity o oreign ex-oenders has allowed policy-makers to shrugo deeats in the courts and continue regardless.It seems that indenite detention could only beended through legal challenges i lawyers canbe ound to take every case to the High Court,which given the shrinking pot o legal aid willbe impossible. In any case, as detainees are

released by the High Court, more undeportablemigrants continue to be detained. Indenitedetention will only end i legal pressure ismatched by concerted political pressure thatorces politicians and policy-makers to conrontthe expense, ineciency and harm done by thepractice.

Nevertheless, important steps have been takentowards an asylum system based on dialoguethat recognises that migrants are human beings.

A UKBA pilot project in Solihull has trialledgiving asylum seekers early access to intensivelegal advice, involving regular communication

between them, their solicitors and UKBA, with

ConCLuSIonIs thr a altrati?

impressive results.74 A new pilot in Liverpoolenables asylum seekers to receive adviceand support throughout the process rom anindependent voluntary sector key worker, sothat they can understand and engage with theasylum system. And the government has pledgedto end the detention o children. But there isnot yet the political will to engage with the

intractable diculties o the most unpopularmigrants.

Australia and Sweden have adopted highlysuccessul alternatives to detention models orall migrants, allowing them to close most otheir detention centres. A common eature othese models is the presence o a case manager,separate rom the decision-maker, who is aconstant point o contact to guide the migrantthrough the immigration or asylum processes,while they live in the community. The casemanager ensures that the migrant understandsthese processes, has access to appropriate legal

advice and can meet their welare needs. Byreducing the stress placed on migrants in thisway, it is possible to initiate a dialogue withmigrants to encourage them to consider allimmigration outcomes as they pass throughthe process. Access to inormation and supporton voluntary return is a part o this. Migrantswhose immediate needs are met are more ableto engage with dicult choices regarding thelimited options available to them. Only 6% omigrants on community-based case managementprogrammes absconded. 67% o those reuseda visa agreed to return voluntarily. Casemanagement costs the Australian governmentless than a third as much as detention.75

However, such changes require a major shitin culture, away rom the assumption thatimmigration control can be maintained throughcoercion alone. Even the proven successes ocase management have so ar persuaded ew

74 See Jane Aspden, Evaluation o the Solihull Project, October2008, http://www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpa-pers/2009/DEP2009-1107.pd

75 International Detention Coalition, The Australian Experience:Alternatives to Immigration Detention, http://idcoalition.org/

wp-content/uploads/2010/02/a2daustraliabrie1eb2010.pdThe International Detention Coalition is gathering examples romaround the world o government good practice in alternativesto detention. LDSG is involved in this work as Western Europecontact, visiting projects in Belgium and Scotland.


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25


governments to make this leap. Yet ultimatelythere may be little choice: indenite detentioncan only be maintained i ever more detentionspaces are created, to warehouse ever moreunwanted migrants. The UKBAs ambition toexpand the detention estate to 4,000 places76is in ruins ollowing the cancellation o threeproposed new detention centres: at Bedordand Bullingdon, where planning permissionhad been obtained, and the conversion o HMPMorton Hall, agreed with the Prison Service.The opening o our new high-security wingsat Harmondsworth in July 2010 provides extracapacity, but this will be balanced out by theclosure o Oakington in November 2010. In thiscontext, it is hard to see how the warehousingo undeportable migrants can continue. Thegovernments review o the asylum system, the

Asylum Improvement Project, which aims tospeed up the conclusion o asylum cases and

save public money, must address the wasteuland ineective use o detention space or peoplewho cannot be deported.

As compelling as the scal arguments are, itis equally vital to articulate the civil libertiesarguments against unnecessary detention.The new coalition government presentsopportunities to call or reorm. The governmenthas emphasized that civil liberties and cuttingwaste in public spending will be key priorities.It has taken the brave political step o pledgingto end the detention o children. To date it hasstopped short o addressing the systemic fawso the detention system, o which indenitedetention is perhaps the most extreme. But theimportance o a government acknowledging thatdetention is not an all-purpose panacea to thechallenges o immigration control should not beunderestimated. This can be the start o a newapproach to immigration control, one based ondialogue rather than orce. One where detentionreally is used as a last resort or the shortestpossible time.

Meanwhile, at Heathrow, at Gatwick, across theUK, the detained people wait. From the windows

o their cells, they watch the planes come andgo. The months and years pass. They growolder. They lose their peace o mind. And theywait: or change, or their release, or an end toindenite detention.

76 National Audit Ofce, op cit, p8.

James Christian from SierraLeone, detained three yearsand seven months

I was given a 3 month sentence, I did six weeks. And my

rst time in prison. I dont know what kind of law is thatin this country, where you can detain someone, and hes aminor offender, driving while disqualied. Why should I comehere and spend three years of my life in detention?

My country was colonized by Britain. We had British teachus. I thought it was a decent place. If ve years ago you hadtold me that, oh, you are going to be detained for three yearshere, I would say no, this is the best country Ive ever beento in my life. Even I had thought that England was a justcountry, equal rights and opportunity, no discrimination, but Idont see justice in England.

Why should we be treated like this like we are nothing, andwe are all the same, the only thing different is the colour ofthe skin, if you cut my hand you will see blood, if I cut yourhand you will see blood.

You see people here in detention, they are losing it, theyare taking medication, just the fact that they are not free,they cannot get better, its sad. When they were outside theywere normal! When they were in prison, they were normal!Because they know they had a date for their release! You arehere indenitely, without no date for release. Ask the peopleto ght for us, because we need them. We need the people toknow that this is very unjust.

Amour Shebani Where to Now?


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Dino Maphosa fromZimbabwe, detained twoyears and eight months

I have been detained since in 2007. They are not sending anyone to Zimbabwe. A situation like that and still they hang onto me like I am some serious criminal.

A lifer is better than a detainee because you know your date.In prison I knew I had a release date. The release date came

and the door was locked. I pressed the bell and I said I amsupposed to be release today.

Fair play to say that immigration has a duty to removepeople who cannot stay here. But okay if you can do that,why not do it. If you are to slaughter a lamb what is the bestway to do it? To shoot it in the head or use a knife? If its aknife, ple