In 2015, following numerous reports of abuse and medical mistreatment in detention centres, and the publication of an All Party Parliamentary Group report, the government commissioned Steven Shaw, former Prison & Probation Ombudsman, to carry out a review of the welfare of vulnerable people in detention. Steven Shaw’s report found a catalogue of deep flaws in the identification and treatment of vulnerable migrants. In response to the Shaw review, the government introduced a new “adults at risk” policy. There was almost no discussion in parliament, and no formal consultation with stakeholders. Crucially, as Medical Justice point out, parliamentarians’ attention was not drawn to the intention to narrow the definition of torture when the policy was laid before parliament. Emma Ginn, coordinator of Medical Justice, said:“What happened to me in detention is in my life every day. I’m having nightmares about the trauma I experienced in that place and have been diagnosed with PTSD. I felt very bad because of the torture I experienced in Nigeria but doctors confirmed that my mental state deteriorated as a result of being detained here. In detention we are not regarded as human beings but as waste products.”
As a result of this policy, many people have been suffered great harm, harm that was unlawful and preventable. This policy is one of the more extreme examples of abuse in the immigration detention system, a system that harms everybody in some way. We need more legal challenges like this, to protect people from harm, and we need to keep on challenging the whole rotten system. Read the statement from Medical Justice here and a report in the Guardian here“Narrowing the definition of torture by the Home Office demonstrates its sheer contempt for vulnerable detainees whose lives it is responsible for. There is ample justification for immediately releasing all detained adults at risk so they can access the care and support they need in the community.”