More Home Office failure revealed in detention statistics

SDV director, Kate Alexander, takes her regular look at the quarterly detention statistics

The latest immigration statistics were released yesterday, and the headlines were dominated by the backlog in asylum applications reaching a record high. But elsewhere, the detention statistics, rarely covered by the press, show more evidence of Home Office failings. Yesterday’s figures bring us up to the end of 2022.

Headline figures

In 2022:

• 20,446 people entered immigration detention, 16% fewer than in 2019, prior to the pandemic, and 17% fewer than in 2021

• 19,447 people left immigration detention, 21% fewer than in 2019 and 20% fewer than in 2021

• 1,159 people were in immigration on December 31, 29% fewer than at the same time in 2019 and 2% fewer than 2021.

The official commentary to the statistics notes that in 2022, fewer people were detained for initial processing immediately on arrival in the country than was the case in 2021. This was largely because of the opening of Manston, where people were held instead, often for longer than 24 hours, but were not included in the detention statistics.

The proportion of people leaving detention after being detained for fewer than seven days, therefore, fell to 48% (from 76% in 2021). But this was still higher than the proportion pre-pandemic in 2019 (39%).

Long term detention

Despite the continued focus in the official commentary on short term detention, as we reported when we analysed last quarter’s figures, long term detention remains very much part of the system. Of those leaving detention in 2022, 5,297 (27%) had been detained for more than 28 days. 439 people (2%) had been detained for more than 6 months.

One person left detention in 2022 having been detained for more than four years.

The data on length of detention for people in detention is not available for the end of the year, but at the end of September, nearly half (46%) had been detained for more than 28 days.

Not only are people detained for long periods, but detention continues to fail at its primary purpose of returning people to their country of origin. In 2022, just 4,088 (21%) of the 19,447 people leaving detention were returned. The proportion returned has not been over 50% for the last eight years.

The rest are released back into the community, their detention having served no purpose but to traumatise them, at a cost of £120 per person per day.

Focus on Dungavel

At the end of 2022, there were 38 people detained in Dungavel, all of them men. This was fewer than the total at the end of the previous quarter (61), but more than at the end of the two previous pandemic years. It is a similar number to the number detained at the end of 2019, before the pandemic (42).

The people in Dungavel at the end of last year came from 18 different countries. The largest groups were from Poland (8 people, 21%), Albania (5, 13%) and Romania (5, 13%). Across the UK, the largest nationality groups were Albania (307 people, 26%), India (80, 7%) and Poland and Romania (both 62 people, 5%)

Yesterday’s data also reveals that 344 people entered immigration detention in Dungavel in 2022. This figure does not include people who were brought to Dungavel after being detained initially in another centre or in prison, so it is not an accurate reflection of the population of the centre over the year.

But the characteristics of this group provide an interesting comparison both with the overall numbers entering detention over the year and with our own data for 2022.

Of those 344 people, 8% were women, compared to just 4% for all people entering detention. This is likely to be a reflection of the fact that Dungavel is one of the few places where women can be detained. Of the 136 people we visited in 2022, 13% were women: we always try to prioritise women for visits as being detained in a mainly male centre can be a frightening and isolating experience. This issue has been consistently highlighted by HMIP in their inspection reports.

The 344 people came from 53 different countries, with the largest groups coming from Albania (24%), Timor Leste (15%) and Romania (13%). Albanians also formed the largest group we visited (21 people, 15%) followed by Poles (17, 13%) and Romanians (14, 10%). We saw one person from Timor Leste, but knew that he was one of a much larger group detained at the same time.

The figures released yesterday do not reveal how many left  detention from Dungavel, or how long people they had been detained, but they show that at the end of September, 21 (44%) of the 61 people detained at the time had been in detention for more than 28 days and four had been detained for more than 6 months.

We also know from our own records that at the end of the year, we were visiting 25 people, 15 of whom had been on our list for 28 days or more. Two had been receiving visits for more than 6 months. Long term detention is an issue in Dungavel as it is across the rest of the detention estate.

The figures are released at time when the political rhetoric around migration is becoming increasingly hostile and we are seeing far-right mobilisation against people seeking asylum across the UK. Meanwhile, the UK government has made no secret of its intention to detain more people, without trial and without time limit.

These are difficult times, but we know detention is harmful and ineffective and that alternatives work. It has never been more important to advocate for a system without detention, based on engagement rather than enforcement.