Review of immigration detainees' well-being must consider torture survivors

Following a report on the well-being into the mental health of immigration detainees the Home Secretary has announced the Shaw Review into immigration detainees' well-being.

This is of concern to Freedom from Torture as torture survivors make up 5-30 per cent of the asylum seeking population; and asylum seekers are the majority of those in immigration removal centres, including torture survivors who have been detained wrongly.

Freedom from Torture's Head of Doctors Dr Juliet Cohen said:

"We welcome this review which is urgently needed as so many torture survivors are detained. This is despite official Home Office policy accepting that the detention of torture survivors is likely to be re-traumatising and have serious adverse health effects, such that they should not ordinarily be detained, but only suffer this in exceptional circumstances.

The safeguards to prevent the detention of torture survivors are manifestly failing, so the decision process on who to detain is also key, although said to be outside the scope of the Shaw review.

In many cases doctors and other clinical staff may find their values are compromised by the dual obligations that arise from the institutional settings. The Shaw review should also look at how to strengthen the independence of health and medical professionals, to support best possible outcomes for the mental health and well-being of those in the detention centres."