For Priti Patel, the findings of her bureau’s report were undoubtedly unpleasant. Fixed on setting up a system that detains and quickly removes asylum seekers, the interior minister would be shocked to find that some staff members in her department are now enthusiastic about a “humane” alternative.
At the same time as the Interior Ministry was secretly drafting options for new immigration centers, government officials elsewhere in the department supported an option that could make such plans redundant.
The results of the Newcastle Home Office scheme, the first government-funded alternative to detention, were unequivocally successful. Helping women asylum seekers in the community has been found to improve their well-being at half the cost of their detention. Vulnerable women who would otherwise be in prison had greater stability and better health.
The employees participating in the program were convinced of its merits. “The Interior Ministry staff who created the project were really invested in it and thought it worked extremely well as an alternative to detention. “Unfortunately, their political masters had less interest,” a source said.
Although he approved all the recommendations of the pilot’s assessment, Patel’s department buried him. Asked why, the Interior Ministry declined to comment.
Another process, funded by the Bedford Home Office, which helps improve the prospects of undocumented migrants while protecting them from detention, has also shown extremely positive results. Still, it should end in June, and fears will be ignored. Three other government schemes for alternatives to detention have been repealed.
Duncan Macaulay, chief executive of the Action Foundation charity, which is leading the process in Newcastle, said he was “really disappointed” that no alternatives were being sought, despite evidence that they were a viable solution.
MoD housing stock used by families at the former RAF base. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer
Last week, his prospects darkened even more. The adoption of the controversial Law on Nationality and Borders on Wednesday night, critics warn, raises the prospect of detaining more asylum seekers, along with more immigration centers to house them.
Some already believe Patel’s plan to attract headers to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda may be a distraction designed to divert control from the deployment of facilities such as the one for the former RAF base in Linton-on-Uus. .
An Observer investigation into the proposed immigration facility in North Yorkshire has revealed alarming elements that the government appears to have wanted to keep secret.
Declared a reception, it appears that the Interior Ministry is actually planning to keep an undisclosed number of the approximately 1,500 asylum seekers it intends to house there.
An official government newsletter on April 14 did not mention the possibility of detaining people, saying only that asylum seekers would receive a protective call if they did not return by 10 p.m.
But at a community meeting caught on video received by Liberty Investigates, local Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake told residents: “There are some people in the area where there will be an element of the detention center and these people will not be allowed to leave custody. . “
Later, when he approached the Observer, Holinrake confirmed that “they [the Home Office] he mentioned an element of detention to me, but did not say how much would be in it. ” The interior ministry responded by saying that “service users” at the facility “will not be detained, but are expected to be on site overnight”.
The city’s unused RAF base is to be converted into asylum seekers, but details are emerging about plans to keep some of them there. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer
Another undeclared element is the potential involvement of Serco, an outsourcing company whose staff has been accused of sexually abusing detainees. Figures from North Yorkshire Police and Linton Parish Council cited the possibility of the site being run by Serco, a detail also omitted from a government directory.
Serco already has a contract to manage some of the most controversial immigration centers, such as Brook House outside Gatwick Airport, where independent observers have recorded a surge in self-harm and suicide attempts. Serco and the Interior Ministry chose not to comment.
The possibility of detention, run by a company with such a controversial record, is already a cause for concern. Lottie Hume, a lawyer with Duncan Lewis, said: “The only reason for hybrid detention is for the Home Office to carry out removal at a speed that will undermine the proper process and limit the ability to seek help from others.
Agnes Tona knows all too well the effects of detention. Ten years after being held at Serco’s infamous immigration center in Yarles Wood, Bedford, the experience continues to haunt her. During Tona’s 90-day prison after escaping the West African war, she said her mental health was badly damaged. She knew another young woman who tried to commit suicide because she “could not understand” why they were effectively in prison.
“Detention is a prison. It’s a traumatic place where asylum seekers find themselves locked up. “
Tona finds it confusing that the UK government has chosen what it describes as a policy of cruelty. “Why was I locked up when I was just asking about safety? Detention harms people. ”
The adoption of the Borders Act promises new damage. Understandably, the government has an undisclosed list of other potential sites for immigration centers, until a new one for women was recently opened.
Critics of the new Derwentside facility in Durham County say inside information is difficult to obtain. It is known that some women claim that they have been denied vital personal legal advice, which activists say could reduce the chances of success, allegations that have led to legal challenge. The interior ministry said face-to-face legal visits “could be facilitated”.
The opening of Derwentside remains a blow to supporters of the progressive asylum system. When it opened after Christmas, the number of women in immigration detention in the UK was at an all-time low of 24. Within weeks, the results of the alternative detention scheme in Newcastle were discussed at the Home Office and then set aside.
This marks a long decline since 2015, when then-Interior Minister Theresa May called for a review that ministers should reduce the number of detainees “boldly and without delay”, along with the “presumption against detention” of rape victims. and sexual violence and those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jackie Holder lives near the proposed facility, which residents have promised to block. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer
Close working relations with the United Nations were encouraged to find a solution to the detention, which led to a working group of the Internal Office and UNHCR on the issue, which met for the first time in October 2017.
Such enlightened ambitions were destroyed by Patel. Celebrating the adoption of its separation bill on Thursday, the Home Office confirmed that the key focus is “removing those who are not allowed to be in the UK”.
Macaulay said: “As the passage of the bill clearly shows, this government is clearly committed to a more expensive, less effective and inhumane approach to immigration management.
In Linton-on-Oz, locals fear that life may never be the same. There has been talk of resorting to extreme tactics such as those used by Extinction Rebellion activists, such as sticking fences and roads.
“Nothing is on the table right now. “People are getting pretty desperate,” said Mark Goddard, a parish councilor. He compared the plans to flooding another village in North Yorkshire, the West End, which was submerged in the 1960s to make way for a reservoir to supply Leeds with drinking water.
“It simply came to our notice then. “We are the concomitant damage sacrificed to quell the inadequacy of a truly incompetent interior ministry,” Goddard said.
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