There is currently no maximum period in the UK for the detention of foreign nationals under immigration powers. The UK is alone in Europe in having no upper limit on detention.
BID is opposed to the use of immigration detention. While detention continues to be used in the UK we consider that:
- it should be time limited and
- subject to regular, automatic judicial oversight.
During 2014, 857 of those people leaving detention in an immigration removal centre had been detained for longer than six months, 26 for between 2 and 4 years, and1 person for over 4 years. People are being detained in the UK despite serious mental or physical ill health, the existence of barriers to their removal, or simply because they have a criminal record.
A time limit on immigration detention in the UK would undoubtedly reduce these abuses of the use of detention.
But a time limit alone is insufficient: any period of detention must also be subject to proper consideration of the necessity of detention in the first place. If a time limit on detention is introduced in the UK, it is essential that all detainees should be protected against any maximum detention period becoming the norm.
Existing safeguards for immigration detainees are inadequate. Since the Immigration Act 2014 some decisions to release on bail made by the independent immigration tribunal can be overruled by the Home Secretary. The Home Office has failed to address practical barriers that prevent detainees getting regular access to the bail process, for example the lengthy delays in the Home Office provision of bail addresses where no suitable private address is available. BID’s regular legal advice surveys show that detainees are frequently unable to secure legal advice and representation on the fact of their continuing detention.
Immigration detainees need protection throughout their detention against arbitrary and unnecessary detention in the form of a meaningful safeguard that is both entirely independent of the Home Office, and not reliant on detainees to initiate.
This safeguard should take the form of judicial oversight of detention, comprised of regular and automatic hearings before a court empowered to consider the legality of detention (not merely to grant bail), and “impose conditions or order release” (Bingham Centre, 2013). Detainees should be brought before the court:
- On the first full day after being taken into detention, then
- At specific and regular intervals up until any legal maximum detention period is reached, and
- Be provided with legal representation for each hearing for as long as their detention is maintained.
Downloads
BID policy paper: Safeguards against arbitrary & prolonged detention
