Gatwick immigration removal centre getting less safe for detainees, says watchdog

Safety has deteriorated and violence has increased at one of the UK’s largest immigration detention centres, with failings that were identified in a public inquiry almost a year ago still not addressed, according to a report.

The findings are published in the annual report by the independent monitoring board for the Gatwick immigration removal centre.

The IRC is 200 metres from Gatwick airport’s main runway and comprises two detention centres, Brook House and Tinsley House, which together can accommodate more than 600 detainees. The board found “a general hardening of conditions” at the centre.

In September 2023 the Brook House public inquiry , the first into abuses at a UK immigration detention centre, identified a “toxic culture” and “credible evidence” of breaches of human rights law relating to torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as the use of racist, derogatory language by some staff towards detainees.

The inquiry was ordered by the then home secretary Priti Patel after the BBC’s Panorama broadcast undercover footage of violence against and abuse of vulnerable detainees at Brook House, filmed between April and August 2017.

One of the reasons for deteriorating conditions at the Gatwick IRC is the large transfer of foreign-national offenders from prisons to help tackle the prison overcrowding crisis. This has led to some of the most vulnerable detainees being accommodated alongside others who have a higher risk profile.

The policy was called Operation Safeguard, and according to the report “an effect of Operation Safeguard has been to make Gatwick IRC a less safe place”.

The report is published at a time when the government has pledged to detain and deport more people who have arrived in the UK.

Key findings include:

• Assaults nearly tripled last year, with 146 assaults on staff compared with 55 in 2022, and 82 assaults between detainees compared with 33 in 2022.

• Use of force more than doubled.

• Handcuffing of detainees for hospital and other external visits jumped from 30% to 100%.

• There were “some indications” that some staff were involved in the supply of drugs to detainees.

• Home Office staff from the detention engagement team felt “reticent” about moving around the centre. According to the report, “the concerns appear to be related to their personal safety”.

• Twelve complaints of serious misconduct by staff escalated to the Home Office’s professional standards unit for investigation.

• There was bedding so old that it had “yellowed with age”.

The report concludes: “The board has sometimes found the tone and approach of some staff unnecessarily aggressive and intimidating.”

The vice-chair of the Gatwick immigration detention centres’ independent monitoring board, Clea Kahn, said: “The board is very concerned that some of the issues we continue to raise echo findings of the Brook House inquiry. This includes the need for more robust safeguarding.

“We are concerned that the need for review and change in the areas highlighted by the inquiry are not being taken seriously enough. In addition, the board is seeing signs of a general hardening of conditions at the Gatwick detention centre. This includes security measures like the increase in lock-up times, resulting in less time for men to engage in activities, contact their families or pursue their legal cases.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare and safety of people in our care very seriously and it is vital that detention and removals are carried out with dignity and respect.

“We are committed to improving our immigration detention facilities and will carefully consider the findings of this report.”