Dungavel inspection report highlights serious concerns
The latest inspection report for Dungavel is out today and it contains several areas of grave concern.
The most serious is the revelation that women held in the centre during the Covid 19 pandemic have had to be escorted around the site for their safety, as men with a history of sexual violence were no longer held in a separate unit. According to the report, infection control measures meant that it was no longer considered possible to control the access of these men to common parts of the centre.
We have long argued that a holding women in Dungavel, a predominantly male environment, is unacceptable. The inspection report notes that of the 383 arrivals in the previous year, just 38 were women. At the time of the inspection, one woman was detained along with 27 men and this ratio is not uncommon in our experience. The women we have visited there have often felt uncomfortable, with one describing it as as like being “a chicken surrounded by dogs”.
The Shaw Report into the welfare of vulnerable people in detention in 2016 also raised concerns about women being detained there, and the last inspection report in 2018 noted that women were subject to unwanted attention from men and the centre did not adequately identify and meet the needs of women.
It is unacceptable that managing the pandemic has resulted in a worsening of already worrying outcomes for women in Dungavel.
Inspectors also note the extremely long detention of some people at the centre. At the time of the inspection, one man had been detained for nearly a year, despite there being little prospect of his removal. Some people who were held for many months had been assessed at level 3 on the Adults at Risk policy, meaning the Home Office recognised that their ongoing detention had a detrimental effect on their health. Others were still in detention despite the Home Office accepting that they were survivors of torture.
These findings accord with our own experience. Over the last year SDV has supported several people who have been detained for many months, none of them knowing when their detention would end. Some began their detention as positive, optimistic people and we witnessed their deterioration under the strain of lengthening and indefinite detention. These impacts were worsened by the increased isolation brought by suspended and restricted visiting throughout the pandemic.
Excessive periods of detention were exacerbated by the fact that people who had been granted bail by an immigration judge remained in detention because there was no suitable bail accommodation for them. Again, SDV has supported a number of people in this position over the last year and we are aware that it is an issue for our colleagues who work in other detention centres across the country. The frustration felt by people who are in this hugely unjust situation cannot be overstated.
The report also reveals that just 16 per cent of the people leaving the centre in the year before the inspection had been removed from the country, again raising concerns about the effectiveness of detention in achieving its stated purpose.
Other areas of concern noted by the report include:
Many people arrived at the centre at night, after very long journeys which involved being in a van for hours at a time.
Eight people at the centre at the time of the inspection were recognised as adults at risk. This is 29 per cent of the total detained at the time.
In most of the rule 35 reports examined in detail by inspectors, the Home Office accepted evidence of torture but did not consider this to be sufficient to release people from detention.
Some security arrangements were disprortionate, with unnecessary room searches being conducted.
Overall, the inspectors make 17 recommendations for improvement to the Home Office and the Centre management, a number of which are repeated recommendations from their previous inspection.
Despite the concerns raised in the report, inspectors praise centre management and staff and say that Dugavel is “fundamentally safe, providing a relaxed and calm environment where levels of violence were very low”.
Kate Alexander, director of Scottish Detainee Visitors, said:
This inspection report makes clear that meaningful detention reform is more vital than ever. That staff found it impossible to provide a safe environment for women detained there during the pandemic only serves to underline what we have long argued about the unsuitability of Dungavel for holding women. The extremely long periods of detention highlighted in the report, and the failure to release people who have been granted bail or are survivors of torture are indications that the Home Office is not fit for purpose. Yet, rather than address these issues, the UK Government is choosing to introduce legislation in its Nationality and Borders Bill that is likely to increase the scale and the harms of detention. Detention is never the answer. What is needed to address the issues raised in this inspection is action to end detention. That means the immediate introduction of a 28 day time limit on detention and the development of a range of community based alternatives to detention.
