Human rights organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has called for a major rethink of the immigration bail process. BID's latest research report ‘’A nice judge on a good day: immigration bail and the right to liberty’, launches tomorrow in Parliament at an event hosted by Simon Hughes MP and addressed by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC. The report examines the entire bail process, which for many detainees is their only opportunity to challenge their detention.
BID is calling for an end to the current system that sees people detained indefinitely, forced to make repeated bail applications over months or years because of a cycle of inaction that means their cases are not being progressed by various agencies.
Immigration bail is an essential independent check on the use of administrative detention in the UK but stronger safeguards are needed to ensure uniformity and fairness in Home Office case management, alongside practice guidelines to inform immigration judge decision-making.
BID argues that widespread failure to engage with the bail process by the Home Office, the Probation Service, and immigration judges is leading to indefinite detention for increasing numbers of immigration detainees.
According to a barrister interviewed for the report: "As usual the Home Office presenting officer was not expected to adduce any evidence in support of the bail summary...There were no concerns from the immigration judge whatsoever. The UKBA never produce evidence to support claims in the bail summary and I have never seen this challenged (despite the burden on the UKBA to justify detention)"
Adeline Trude of BID commented that "The immigration bail process is an essential challenge to the use of detention powers in the absence of any statutory time limit. It is crucial that this cycle of inaction is broken to avoid unnecessary and prolonged detention, which is both wasteful and damaging to individuals."
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A nice judge on a good day: immigration bail and the right to liberty
