Visiting Dungavel in 2024: the story so far
In this blog SDV director, Kate Alexander, takes a look at our visit statistics for the first six months of 2024
In the six months to the end of June 2024, SDV volunteers and staff made 53 visits to Dungavel to offer solidarity and support to the people detained there.
Dungavel is located in the middle of the South Lanarkshire countryside and is not on any public transport routes, so our visitors travel in car sharing groups, usually from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Visiting in groups of up to five allows our visitors to benefit from the support of their peers during the visit. This is especially important as it is difficult to predict what they will encounter on a visit.
This has particularly been the case this year as Dungavel has been detaining more people than it has done in recent years. Its capacity has been increased and we understand it is now 150. There have certainly been times when staff have told us that at least 130 people have been detained there.
Our visitors arrive at the centre with an idea of the people they want to visit. They might have referrals from other organisations, requests from people in detention or notes from Georgie, our volunteer coordinator, about issues to follow up with particular people we are supporting. But there might also be other people who arrive at the visit room eager to talk to us. This means our visitors need to be prepared for anything, and it can vary a lot.
While the average number of people seen at visits in January to June 2024 was just under 8, the actual number varies very widely. On one visit, a fire alarm disrupted proceedings shortly after we arrived meaning that we didn’t see anyone at all, but on other visits, we saw as many as 15 people.
The people we see at visits are a mix of people newly arrived at Dungavel and shocked to find themselves in detention, and people we have seen before. With new people we always want to introduce SDV to them, ensure they know they are able to engage a legal aid immigration lawyer to represent them, make them aware of other potential sources of support, and check that they are coping with what’s happening to them. When we visit people who we have met before, discussions are more varied. We might talk about people’s immigration cases, and their frustrations and fears. But we might also have lighter conversations: sport, life in the UK, the weather, films, TV, gaming and current affairs are all topics that have come up in the visit room.
By the end of June 2024, our visitors had supported a total 106 people who we know have now left Dungavel. We were also visiting a further 30 people at the end of June who were still in the centre but are not included in the rest of these figures. In 2023, we supported 216 people across the whole year, so it seems possible that we will exceed that figure in 2024.
Dungavel has 12 bedspaces for women in what is essentially a male centre so we always see many more men than women. But 25 per cent of the people we’ve supported so far this year have been women, a much higher proportion than usual. Last year, just seven per cent of the people we supported were women.
There are a few factors that we think have combined to this increase. First, we believe more women are being detained in Dungavel. Second, when women are in Dungavel they are staying for longer. Last year, we frequently heard that women were detained there but found that they had been released or, more often, transferred to another centre after a couple of days and before we were able to visit them. And finally, we have made a special effort this year to prioritise women for visits.
The difficulties faced by women being detained in a predominantly male centre are well established and have consistently raised in inspection reports of Dungavel. Those difficulties are now compounded by the fact that women are escorted by staff everywhere they go in the centre. This is a safeguarding measure that the management has introduced because men who are detained in Dungavel sometimes have convictions for offences of violence against women. This is an issue that, along with our colleagues at Women for Refugee Women, we have raised with inspectors and will continue to do so. While this regime for women is in place, we think it’s especially important to prioritise them for visits.
We have visited people from 33 different countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The largest groups were Albanians (14 per cent), Poles (12 per cent) and Romanians (11 per cent). This reflects the detained population as a whole as these nationalities, along with Indians were in the top four nationalities detained across the UK at the end of March 2024, according to the latest Home Office figures. Indians accounted for five per cent of the people we visited.
Most of the people we visited were seen once or twice, but long term detention at Dungavel continues to be a concern. Four people were released on bail after we had been visiting them for over eight months. All of them were visited regularly as we helped them to deal with the frustrations of long term, indefinite detention. The impacts on their mental and physical health were obvious to everyone who visited them. Their frustrations were especially intense as they had been granted bail in principle but remained in detention because no suitable accommodation was available for them. They all waited for months as their applications for schedule 10 accommodation were processed by the Home Office.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing all four of them when they visited our office. Although they were pleased to be out of detention, life continues to be very hard, and I was angry that so little support is available to them. Of even greater concern, however, is the fact that we are now aware of people being released from detention to street homelessness. These are signs of a system not fit for purpose.
The new UK Government has made some positive steps in ending the Rwanda plan and announcing that the Bibby Stockholm barge will close. It has far more to do to deal with the numerous failings of the immigration system. Like many of our colleagues we are concerned that it remains overly focused on enforcement. More fundamental change is needed to build a supportive, rather than hostile environment for people who migrate to the UK. And we know detention does not need to be part of that. There are alternatives.
