1.  This memorandum is based on research conducted by postgraduate student Emma Cole (SOAS), during the period June to September 2002. The intention of the research was to examine the effects of recent policy changes which allow the detention of asylum-seeking families for longer periods and at different stages in their claims. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine families were used to explore family members' perceptions of and experiences of detention. In the course of the interviews serious concerns were expressed by families regarding removals.

2.  WHAT ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND HUMANE METHODS OF REMOVAL?

  2.1  My research suggests that current removal methods are both ineffective and inhumane. In particular, decisions to remove people appear to be taken prematurely (ie before their asylum claim has come to a conclusion), with the result that many end up in detention centres for prolonged periods. Given appropriate legal assistance, some families have subsequently been able to exercise appeal rights that had not yet been exhausted. The removal directions have then been cancelled, and eventually the families in question have been released pending final decisions on their asylum claims. Interviewees explained how the experience had entailed the loss of homes, possessions, and children's school places, and has damaged family members' physical and mental health.

  2.2  Interviewees expressed a sense of injustice and incomprehension relating to decisions on their asylum claims, partly as a result of poor communication between the Immigration Service and asylum seekers. Decision-making must be credible and transparent, and reasons for refusal clearly communicated to those subject to removal directions. The research findings suggest there is a pressing need for independent oversight of decisions to remove.

  2.3  The manner in which families had been removed from their homes was an unexpected cause of concern. Experiences ranged from inconsiderate treatment of children's needs (to drink, to go to the toilet), to disregard for parents' medical conditions, and outright violence. Families also complained that they had not been given time to collect important possessions, nor contact details for solicitors, GPs, etc.

  2.4  Families had also been roughly handled and otherwise mistreated during travel to airports, whilst being put onto aeroplanes, and following unsuccessful attempts to board them onto planes. Interviews demonstrated that some were treated better than others during removals, however, several interviewed families were taken to the airport three or four times during their detention period, where they reported being subjected to violence, verbal abuse and deception. They have faced this mistreatment when often already traumatised by the manner in which they were removed from their homes to go into detention, as described above. The Immigration Service employs private security firms to conduct removals, and it appears that mistreatment of asylum seekers may be occurring due to insufficient monitoring of the conduct of security firm staff.

3.  WHAT COMPASSIONATE FACTORS SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT?

3.1  The research found that the following factors were not being taken into account:

3.2  Children resident in the UK for most or all of their lives

—  One family threatened with removal had been in UK for six years. Their elder child (aged six) arrived in the UK at the age of five months, the younger (aged three) was born in the UK. The elder child had settled in primary school, and both children's first language was English.

—  The majority of families interviewed also had children who were born in the UK, and several of their elder children were settled in primary and secondary education. The first language of several of these children was English.

3.3  Splitting families

—  One family (with children aged two—born in the UK—and aged seven) had been separated by the removal of the father nine months earlier to his country of origin. The mother states that she has subsequently been unable to contact him, and fears he may be dead. Their asylum claim continues to be processed.

—  Another family was separated during the research period, when the mother and child (aged 22 months, born in the UK) were removed to their country of origin, after five days in detention. This left the father, diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, without a carer (he had been out buying milk when the mother and child were taken into custody).

3.4  Mental and physical health of family members

—  The above case, where the mentally ill father was abandoned, was particularly disturbing. Two days before removal, the mother explained:

Mother [crying]: My husband he's very ill, he's mentally ill . . . He came out to buy milk at eight o'clock in the morning, we hadn't that morning milk . . . Maybe he saw police and he was scared . . . Maybe he's sitting outside now . . . I've called the agency and they told me "we have changed the locks because that's what they told us" . . . they had to make it closed to us. [My husband] has lost his mind, he has lost his memory . . . his GP made an appointment with neurologist but I couldn't make him come . . . because he is scared. Even [I was] just lying to him, sometimes I lied to him to make him come. He has seen the psychologist. I got a report . . . [But] I don't have it with me: I don't have anything with me. They told me I have 20 minutes to pack . . . I couldn't think . . . and I have to take things for the baby . . . I told them "why you removing me and bringing me to jail?" They told me "you don't talk to anyone in here," and they will tell me when I am leaving . . . I don't need to be here, I don't need to go to jail. If they tell me it's over I can just go to the airport.

—  In another case, a family of four was detained for over two months after attempts to remove them were unsuccessful. The family had shown medical evidence to a pilot, stating that the mother should not be made to fly due to her mental ill-health. The pilot refused to take them. The family claim that they were then assaulted by private security staff (employed by the immigration service to conduct removals). This matter is now being dealt with by civil solicitors. Following the alleged assault, they were returned to the detention centre where they had already spent one month, and endured a further month of detention, during which time their possessions were not returned to them, and the younger child (aged five) developed a skin infection as a result of wearing the same clothes continuously. The family has since been released, and their asylum claim continues to be processed.

4.  WHAT INCENTIVES ARE THERE TO ENCOURAGE THOSE REFUSED ASYLUM TO LEAVE VOLUNTARILY?

  4.1  One cannot separate the issue of removals from the overall credibility (or lack thereof) of the asylum claims process. The overwhelming conclusion of this research has been to identify a need for accurate, credible, and transparent decision-making throughout. Interviewees felt they had been, or were being, treated unjustly by the Immigration Service. Improving communications between the Immigration Service and asylum seekers, improving asylum seekers' access to higher standards of legal representation, and access to information more generally, would contribute to a greater sense of justice (and indeed enable cases to be more fairly heard).

FURTHER CASE STUDIES

Case study—Removal from the home

Daughter: [On the day the Immigration Service took us into detention,] they didn't even allow us to go to toilet in the house . . . They knocked on the door and my dad opened the door, and about ten immigration police came in. They came into our bedrooms very loudly and told us that we were detained. They told us that we have to pack up very quickly. My dad [who, along with his wife, has been on medication for depression and panic attacks—a point emphasized by the family's GP] wanted an ambulance because he felt really bad.

M: . . . because my husband have panic attack you know—his heart beat very fast, and he can't breathe . . .

D: . . . when my dad wanted the ambulance the immigration police laughed at him and they said there's nothing wrong with you, and then my dad fainted. When he was fainted, they've tied his hands so, like this [she crosses her wrists], and they've dragged him across the floor. And they took him into the police station and they took my dad into a cell. My dad only had shorts and a t-shirt on, he didn't have shoes and socks on. After they took him into the police station, because he didn't have any clothes, my mum gave the police some clothes for him and they said they would give him clothes in the cell but they didn't. And there was an emergency button in the cell on the wall, and my dad pressed it three times because he felt really bad, but nobody came. Afterwards they've called a doctor in the police station, but the doctor, without asking any questions or doing anything, he told my dad that "there's nothing wrong with you, he said you're just doing this because you want some time". Then they took me, my mum and my brother to the police station . . . they've gave my mum some documents about flights and they wanted my mum to sign it but my mum said "I can't sign it without my solicitor" . . .

M: I have to ask my solicitor, I said.

D: . . . and then the police just grabbed the paper off my mum's hand and said "if you don't sign it, I'll sign it for you." And then they said we haven't got any time left, so we have to go to Harmondsworth. And my mum said she couldn't travel without her medicine, but the police didn't give her medicine to her. And the police said, "if you cause any problems, we'll put you to another cell, and we'll send your children alone to the detention centre".

M: I want just my medicine, and they say "we put you in another cell and your children go alone". . .

D: My mum said we were enough scared from the police so they couldn't send us alone. Especially my brother was terrified. . . . For my mum it [the worst thing about being detained] was the travel that we cake from [our home] to Harmondsworth . . .

M: The van it's like a box, and the police didn't give it to me my medicine . . .

D: . . . and we travelled for five hours and she didn't take any medicine . . .

CASE STUDIES: REMOVALS—DECEPTION

  Security staff escorting a family attempted to persuade them, in one case right up to the departure gate, that they would get to speak to an Immigration Officer if they went through. Another family also recounted:

Father: Under the aircraft, somebody came from same people as detention. I showed him fax from solicitors. He tried to say to my wife, "ok, go first". I told him, "you know, until now, some misunderstanding". . . After that he call somebody. He say, Home Office "he don't like to see you". I said I need somebody for talk to. He tried to make me come out of myself . . .

Mother: you know, to say, "ok, I'm going, I keep quiet" . . .

Father: People came to get on plane . . . [After that], he took us to place inside terminal two, like detention. He keep us sitting three hours.

Mother: . . . and really, it's too dirty there . . .

Father: After that they bring us here [to the detention centre].

CASE STUDIES: REMOVALS—VIOLENCE

Case Study—Removal

  A family's experiences at the airport after one month in detention, described the following day by the 12 year-old daughter.

We showed the medical report to the pilot, and he refused to take us because he said "this family has health problems, I can't take them."

And that was when the immigration police acted really bad at us. They locked us in a small room and left us there for 10 hours. And my mum can't stay in a small room because she's got health problems—she has medicines for that and they didn't give her any medicines as well. She wanted to smoke a cigarette. She was just going to smoke a cigarette, and the police grabbed it off her, and they started hitting her, and pulled her by her hair. And her lips were bleeding because they hit her really bad, and now it's gone kind of blue . . . And they kicked her as well . . .

[Now] she's not ok. She didn't sleep all night. And we didn't eat anything yesterday. [they gave us food in the airport,] but we couldn't eat it.

And my brother's terrified now. He was really bad before, but now he's terrified. He was crying "don't hit my mum!". He went to the toilet every five minutes because of the stress he had. And now he's always telling us that he's ill today, so he's really bad.

My Dad tried to stop them [hitting my mum], and immigration police ran at him, and they've pushed him on the floor, and they sat on his knees. And he's already got a problem with his one knee, because he was tortured in [our country] and it was already sore . . . And they started hitting him really badly.

They hit me and my brother as well. They've pushed me and they tried to lock me in the room as well, with my mum and my brother. And when I wanted to go to the toilet, they wouldn't let me.

They separated us and they put my dad in a different room. With all that stress he had in one month, he broke all the windows. Now he's gone to have an operation on his hand. He's having some stitches.

And when the police took my father into the hospital, they've put the seat belts all over him, and they put handcuffs on him so he couldn't move at all. And there was one police with him and [at the hospital,] that police said "Why did you come to England? We don't want you here." And when my dad had all these handcuffs and the seatbelts on, he hit him.

We don't know their names [the immigration police], but we know their faces. My dad wanted to take his name [the man who hit him at the hospital], but he covered it with his hand.

  Twenty days later, the family were still waiting to have their bags returned to them after coming back from the airport to the detention centre—they had therefore been without a change of clothes for those 20 days.

  Another family described similar treatment at the hands of security staff:

Father: They put handcuffs on my hands . . . my children crying on the floor [beside me]. Take by force [to Heathrow airport] . . . take me first my children cry . . . in the floor you know . . . [at the airport] on the floor four officers put me, beat me . . . My children see me what happened, and now they ask me what happened, why did they do that to you? [Since that experience,] All family bad dreams . . . too many times no sleeping . . . take medication for sleeping . . .

October 2002