We must learn the lessons from Brook House
3 min read
Today marks one year since the Brook House Inquiry published its report on its investigation into allegations that people held in immigration detention were subjected to torture and degrading treatment.
The inquiry exposed the extreme levels of abuse that took place at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre in 2017 and found 19 credible breaches of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Such shocking findings should have acted as a serious wake up call, but it was clear that under the Conservative government, no lessons had been learned. Following an unannounced inspection in February this year, the prisons watchdog described the conditions at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre as ‘truly shocking’. And this week it was revealed that repeated use of force was applied to distressed detainees rounded up for the Tories failed Rwanda plan.
My visit to a detention centre this year through my role on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration confirmed that many of the systemic problems identified in the report remain. Detention centres continue to look and feel like prisons. They are places where rights and freedoms are curtailed and sadly where peoples’ mental and physical health often rapidly deteriorates.
Many of those in detention are extremely vulnerable. Despite dehumanising portrayals of detainees as ‘illegal migrants’, in reality they are often refugees or trafficking victims who have already undergone significant trauma. And despite claims that people will be sent back to the country where they came from, the majority of those in detention will be released, not removed.
We now have the opportunity to rethink our approach to detention. That means swiftly implementing the recommendations outlined in the Brook House Inquiry report, including a comprehensive review into the use of force, segregation and the entire safeguarding framework.
It means redirecting resources to alternatives to detention, instead of expanding the detention estate. This should include investing in community- based programs, which have been piloted by the Home Office previously and have proven to be both more humane and cost-effective.
It means ensuring that trafficking survivors, pregnant women and those who are LGBTQI+ are never subject to detention. And it means ensuring that the Adults at Risk policy is properly implemented so that particularly vulnerable people are identified quickly and swiftly taken out of detention.
The chair of the Brook House Inquiry, Kate Eves concluded in her report that ‘the events that occurred at Brook House cannot be repeated’. Now is the time for the government to show that the lessons from the past can really be learned. Where the Conservatives failed to act, Labour can change the story and implement the recommendations from the review.
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