Freedom from Torture response to the Chief Inspector of Prisons' Report on Yarl's Wood

Sonya Sceats, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Freedom from Torture, said:

"This report on Yarl's Wood is yet more evidence, if it were needed, that survivors of torture and others are being wrongly held in immigration detention, and legal protections like Rule 35 have become toothless in practice.

"As our clinicians know, immigration detention can have serious consequences for survivors of torture who have already suffered psychological trauma as a result of horrific abuses in detention in their countries of origin. Detention in places like Yarl's Wood can retraumatise them and pose serious obstacles to their rehabilitation, in some cases leading individuals to self-harm.

"This report, together with recent court rulings on Detained Fast Track, show something is really rotten in the immigration system. Once and for all, the Home Office should accept that asking for protection in the UK is not a crime. Otherwise survivors of torture will continue to bear the brunt of our unjust immigration detention system."