What do the latest detention statistics tell us?
In this blog, SDV director, Kate Alexander, takes her regular look at Home Office detention statistics
The latest quarterly immigration statistics were out yesterday, and while press focus was on net migration, the figures also allow us to explore the way in which detention is used. The figures on detention cover people detained in immigration removal centres, residential short term holding facilities and those held under immigration powers in prisons. But it’s important to remember that people can be held at Manston processing centre for up to four days and that people may also be detained under immigration powers for days in police cells. These unknown numbers of people are not included in the figures released yesterday.
People entering detention
In the year to the end of March 2025, 20,919 people entered detention in the UK, 10 per cent more than in the previous year, continuing the upward trend in detentions over the last two years.
Digging a little deeper into the figures shows that detentions in Dungavel have increased more than the national figure. 770 people entered detention in Dugavel over the year, 21 per cent more than the 637 in the previous year. These figures underestimate the number of people who were detained in the centre as they do not include people were moved to Dungavel after being detained in another centre. It is not possible to say how large the difference is, but it is likely to be considerable.
The latest IMB report for Dungavel shows that in 2023 there were 973 arrivals at the centre, 87 per cent more than the 519 recorded in the Home Office figures as beginning their detention there. If this pattern is replicated, more than 1,400 people could have been detained in Dungavel in the year to the end of March 2025. Our own experience of visiting Dungavel certainly is of a much busier centre than in previous years.
People from 163 different nationalities entered detention over the year, with the largest groups coming from Albania (27 per cent), Brazil (11 per cent), India (10 per cent) and Romania (10 per cent). People who entered detention in Dungavel came from 56 different countries, with the largest groups coming from Albania (30 per cent), Romania (21 per cent), India (6 per cent) and China (5 per cent).
People in detention
At 31 March 2025, there were 1,806 people in immigration detention, 6 per cent fewer than on the same date in 2024. 87 people were detained in Dungavel, 41 per cent fewer than the 123 who were detained there a year earlier. These figures are snapshots and the numbers in detention fluctuate daily. Our own experience is that 87 is a remarkably low figure for Dungavel over the last year. It is far more common for us to be told that the numbers detained are close to its current capacity of 150.
The most common nationalities in detention on 31 March this year were Albanians (24 per cent), Indians (16 per cent) and Brazilians (9 per cent). In Dungavel, there were also more Albanians detained than any other nationality (29 per cent), but they were followed by Romanians (14 per cent) and Poles (10 per cent).
People leaving detention
21,065 people left detention in the year to 31 March 2025. Continuing a pattern that has been established for the last nine years, the majority of people leaving detention (57 per cent) were released back into the community. The proportion being returned (43 per cent) is higher than the previous year (40 per cent), reflecting the current Government’s intense focus on immigration enforcement. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases detention fails at what we are told is its primary purpose and achieves nothing but to traumatise the people and communities affected, at great cost to the public purse.
We cannot say from the figures where people leaving Dungavel go. The IMB report for 2023 notes that most removals from Dungavel are to centres in England but does not indicate how many people are released back into the community. As visitors, we rarely know where people have gone when they leave the centre, although we sometimes have the pleasure of seeing people who have been released visiting us in our office, sometimes after very long periods in detention.
Length of detention
The official commentary to the figures stresses that most detentions are short. But, as usual, this obscures the fact that detention can still be prolonged.
In the year to the end of March, 34 per cent of people leaving detention had been detained for more than 28 days. 553 people (3 per cent) had been detained for more than 6 months, and 96 people had been detained for more than a year. One person left detention after being detained for more than four years.
As there is no time limit on detention in the UK, none of these people knew how long they would be detained, making detention a uniquely stressful experience.
The figures for the length of the people in detention have not been updated since 2022, depriving us of a crucial piece of information about the experience of people in detention. But we know that there are people in detention centres across the UK now who have been detained for months and even years. At SDV, we are currently visiting people who have been in Dungavel for over six months, and we witness every week the profound impact that indefinite detention has on their mental and physical health.
Detention is unnecessary and ineffective. A wide range of research from both home and abroad shows us that there are effective and humane alternatives to detention. A crucial first step to ending detention altogether is the introduction of a time limit. Not only would this reduce the harm caused by detention, but it would also greatly reduce the numbers in detention and save tax payers millions of pounds.
See our briefing for more information about detention in Scotland and the changes we want to see.
