Home Affairs Committee finds Home Office "utterly failed in responsibility to oversee safe and humane detention"

The Home Affairs Select Committee has published its report on immigration detention. Freedom from Torture responds to the Home Office's "utter failure" to protect vulnerable people, highlighted in the report.  

Sonya Sceats, Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture said:

“This important report is yet another damning indictment of a failing and punitive immigration detention system which places an impossible burden on people at risk.

“Far too many vulnerable people are being wrongly detained, for no good reason, and without adequate safeguards. In addition, our research shows that even where detainees are identified as being ‘vulnerable and at risk’, just 6% are released.

“The impact of detention on torture survivors is devastating. It compounds trauma and can severely hamper recovery. Yet torture survivors continue to be detained.

“It is high time the government heeds the words of our parliamentary committees and its own independent advisers, and establishes an Adults at Risk policy that is fit for purpose, and ensures torture survivors are never detained.”