What the papers don’t say
While all the media focus is on today’s net migration figure, SDV director, Kate Alexander, takes a look at the detention statistics, also released today
Today’s immigration figures have been hotly anticipated and are widely being seen as a test of Rishi Sunak’s Government. Successive promises to reduce net migration and ‘stop the boats’ have put the focus on these statistics as never before. They have also contributed to the increasingly hostile political rhetoric on migration and to the rise of the far right
Today’s announcement of a 20 per cent rise in net migration has been the lead story for most of today’s news outlets.
But the figures also show us about trends in detention, and these rarely make the headlines. This is despite the fact that the Government’s abandonment of its commitment to reduce both the number of people detained and the length of detention has been emphatically underlined by the introduction of the Refugee Ban Bill. If enacted, this cruel legislation will allow for the indefinite detention of anyone entering the UK by irregular routes.
Sadly, totally abandoning this policy commitment is not seen as a vital test for the Government.
So what do the detention figures show?
20,416 people entered immigration detention in the year ending March 2023, 20 per cent fewer than in the year ending March 2022
The official commentary to the figures notes that the fall in the number of people entering detention is largely due to fewer people arriving on small boats entering the detention estate. This is not to say that they are not detained. They may be held in other places such as Manston, which are not included in these figures. Manston can hold people for up to five days.
1,591 people were held in immigration detention on 31 March 2023 (including those detained under immigration powers in prison). This was 10 per cent higher than at the end of March 2022.
This included 53 people in Dungavel, compared to 18 at the same time the previous year – an increase of nearly 300 per cent. The commentary to the official figures notes that the numbers in detention can fluctuate daily. This is true. However, we know from our regular visits that the numbers in Dungavel have remained fairly steady at between 50 and 60 for most of this year. There is no sign of a reduction to the levels we saw during and towards the end of the pandemic. Indeed the figure revealed today is similar to the figures pre-pandemic (42 at the end of December 2019, and 59 at the end of September 2019).
19,102 people left detention in the year ending March 2023, which was 24% fewer than in the year ending March 2022.
This fall in the number of people leaving detention is also linked to fewer people who have arrived from the channel being detained for short periods and then released. The proportion of people leaving detention after fewer than seven days fell from 73 per cent in the year to March 2022 to 44 per cent in the year to March 2023. The latest figures are much more consistent with pre-pandemic figures – 39 per cent in 2019 and 37 per cent in 2018.
Long term detention
Disappointingly, the figures showing how long people in detention had been detained have again not been updated. The latest figures given are those for the end of September 2022, the same as we reported last quarter.
That these figures have not been updated for the last six months is a concern. Organisations like ours, with an interest in how the Home Office manages detention, have been denied a key piece of information on which to judge its performance. There is no explanation of why this information is unavailable.
We do know that 27 per cent of the people leaving detention in the year to March 2023 (5,218) had been detained for more than 28 days. Of those, 427 had been detained for six months or more, and 107 had been detained for a year or more.
Two people left detention after being detained for four years or more.
Think about that. They were in detention when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. They were in detention when Joe Biden became President of the United States. And they spent the entirety of the pandemic in detention. And during all those four years, in common with everyone who is detained in the UK, they had no idea how long their detention would last.
Detention serves no purpose
We are told that detention is necessary to remove people with no right to be in the UK from the country, and that this is its primary purpose. But for years most people leaving detention have been released back into the community.
This quarter’s figures continue this trend. Just 21 per cent of people leaving detention were removed from the country. The remaining 79 per cent were released back into the community. Their detention had served no purpose other than to traumatise them and their family and friends, at the cost to the public purse of £120 per day.
The UK Government knows that detention does not work. It has known it for years. That it has stopped attempting to address the real issues in favour of introducing cruel and unworkable legislation like the Refugee Ban Bill is shameful.
