action on asylum and refugees
action on asylum and refugees
Photo: © Isabelle Merminod
Asylum detention in the UK
The UK has 7 immigration detention centres with a capacity to hold 2,650. Expansion plans, that are already agreed, will increase this space to 3000.
Asylum detention continues to rise. In May 2007 there were 2060 detainees: 1435 had sought asylum and 120 were held in criminal prisons.
A significant percentage of asylum detainees are bereaved, tortured, traumatised - even suicidal. Legal Aid for asylum has been severely curtailed and so many detainees now get perfunctory legal representation, with neither time nor resources to prepare evidence or expert reports for the courts.
The racial justice team has produced Migration Principles (2007) and Asylum Principles (2006) to help churches navigate the complexities of policy on these controversial subjects. Find the details in Racial Justice / Resources.
"We maintain that people seeking asylum should not be detained
or held in prison unless they have been charged
with a serious criminal offence. Very few are."
from Migration Principles
The Churches' Racial Justice Network takes these issues very seriously but resources are precious. One worker is employed on asylum and refugee work for two days a week. Funding for this is entirely from charitable sources.
Contact Asylum and Refugee worker, Puck de Raadt
Read the report of Caged Kids - Caged Minds including Psychotherapist Sheila Melzak's research on the long lasting clinical harm of immigration detention.