Joint Statement to the Home Secretary in Response to the announcement to reopen Haslar and Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs)

We are opposed to the plans to reopen Campsfield House and Haslar Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs). This statement represents a collective voice of local residents, individuals with lived experience of detention, advocacy groups, academics, and organisations deeply concerned about the profound harm caused by immigration detention. It was originally written and addressed in a public letter sent to the Home Secretary. The statement, co-ordinated by AVID, Keep Campsfield Closed and Border Criminologies received 82 signatures, representing 50 organisations. 

The plans to reopen Haslar and Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre's should be abandoned. These plans were first announced under the Conservative government and have been re-affirmed by the Labour Government.

Our asks to the Home Secretary

1. ‍Reduce the Immigration Detention estate: No human should be incarcerated for administrative convenience. End the use of detention as a tool of immigration enforcement starting by using detention as a last resort and ending the detention of vulnerable people, in line with Objective 13 of the Global Compact for Migration. ‍
2. Review and Implement the Brook House Inquiry Recommendations: Ensure that the systemic failures identified in the inquiry are addressed and that similar abuses do not occur in other IRCs.
3. ‍Uphold the Values of Fairness and Humanity: Align immigration policies with principles of fairness, humanity, openness, diversity and inclusion, as recommended by the Windrush review.‍
4. Invest in community-based alternatives: Redirect resources away from detention and into community-based support that prioritise dignity, fair treatment, and human rights.‍
5. Engage with Individuals with Lived Experience of Detention: Any future policy decisions must be led by those with lived experience of detention and migration, ensuring that their voices are at the forefront of creating a truly just system

1. Reduce the Immigration Detention estate

We reject the narrative that detention is necessary or justifiable. It is well recognised - through the testimonies of people detained, in academic research, through public and statutory inquiries into detention, amongst national and international human right mechanisms and in evidence from NGOs working in immigration detention that detention has a profound impact on people’s mental and physical health, with effects lasting far beyond the time spent detained.  The removal of someone’s liberty as part of an administrative process - without knowledge of a release date - has been described by people detained as “mental torture”. Detention significantly increases the risk of self-harm and suicide - 57 people have died in immigration detention in England and Wales since 2000, 31 of these by suicide. We call for a decisive reduction of the immigration detention estate. No human should be incarcerated for administrative convenience.

The announcement to re-open Haslar and Campsfield IRCs is with the stated intent of increasing immigration enforcement and returns. We welcome the recognition in the Home Secretary’s announcement that this must take into account the vital lessons from Windrush. It is our concern that these aims are deeply conflicted. A broken system, rooted in hostile environment policies, is failing countless individuals in detention, just as it did the Windrush generation. Tellingly, the most recent Home Office pilot for “Alternatives to Detention” delivered by the King’s Arms Project found that 80% of participants – people at risk of detention - were presented with viable options to regularise their immigration status in the UK when provided with adequate legal advice and support in the community.Increasing the use of detention is not the solution to the complex reasons which result in people arriving to the UK via unsafe routes or being unable to regularise their immigration status.

Under the previous Conservative government, the plans to re-open these centres were explicitly linked to the intention to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda. We are greatly relieved that the Labour government has brought an end to the Rwanda Offshoring plans. However, the chaos and suffering of the 220 people detained for removal to Rwanda, without cause, demands urgent reflection. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. Over the years, immigration detention has been used without accountability, with the majority of people detained, only to be released into UK communities, where they rightfully belong, but at devastating cost to their lives.

2. Review and Implement the Brook House Inquiry Recommendations

The Brook House Inquiry report (2023) found 19 instances with credible evidence of acts or omissions that were capable of amounting to mistreatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the inquiry, clear links were found between systemic failures of safeguards, an institutional culture of disbelief, indifference and racism amongst staff, and a system which prioritised enforcement and removal at all costs. These findings are not isolated to Brook House IRC or the period April-August 2017. The IMB annual report for 2023 in Brook House IRC found trends including: safety has deteriorated throughout 2023 and concurrently the use of force doubled as compared to 2022; there is a continued failure to properly use Rule 35; and evidence suggesting staff culture and burnout. Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS),who visit people in Colnbrook and Harmondsworth IRCs, held a focus group and interviews with people recently detained in centres across the UK and found concerning parallels with the Brook House Inquiry report, including the use of segregation to manage mental health concerns; deficiencies in both healthcare provision and safeguarding, and the inappropriate use of force.This has been echoed by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, which found all eight IRCs in the UK to have serious failings in their most recent reports. The inspection report of Harmondsworth IRC found a catalogue of failures, including dilapidated buildings, shortage of experienced staff, overcrowding, and 48% of people surveyed reported feeling suicidal whilst in the centre.

3. Uphold Values of Fairness and Humanity

We invite the Home Secretary to take heed of the Windrush review’s recommendation to centre values of fairness, humanity, openness, diversity and inclusion. We state with conviction that the plans to expand detention are out of step with these values. The closure of Haslar and Campsfield IRCs in 2015 and 2019, respectively, was a victory for human rights. It marked a shift toward a more humane immigration system, supported by the recommendations from the Shaw Reviews on the welfare in detention of vulnerable persons and a series of High Court rulings prior that immigration detention had amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3. To re-open these centres is to disregard past lessons. Prior to their closure, Haslar and Campsfield IRCs had a troubled history of abuse and neglect. In 2008, following a media report of extensive allegations of abuse in detention centres, a report from Medical Justice detailed instances of alleged assault in Campsfield IRC and in Haslar IRC. This included, amongst other highly distressing accounts, the experience of a man detained in Haslar IRC in 2003who, after a suicide attempt, was placed in isolation through the use of force. Around this time, a freedom of information request revealed 52 self-harm incidents in Haslar IRC in 2004/5 and a further 52 incidents in Campsfield during the same period. In 2010, almost half of the people detained in Campsfield IRC went on hunger strike, stating that they were refusing food indefinitely “for our voices to be heard”. Ramazan Kumluca, an 18-year-old seeking asylum, and Ianos Dragutan, aged 35, both committed suicide whilst detained in Campsfield IRC in 2005 and in 2011.This heightened questions and concern amongst local community members who - in both Gosport and Oxford - were distressed by what was happening on their doorstep. They took practical steps to visit people in detention and offer their support.

The government should follow the example set by these communities, who have committed to humanity, compassion and community. Their message is clear: detention is not the answer, change the narrative and change the direction. 

4. Invest in community-based alternatives

The government should prioritise community-based alternatives to detention alongside wider steps to fix our broken asylum system and address the root issues at the heart of our immigration system. The UNHCR’s independent review of the two Home Office pilots demonstrated increased engagement with the immigration system and personal stability, and participants were treated fairly and with dignity. There was no evidence that the pilots reduced compliance with the immigration system and public funds were more effectively channelled through civil society organisations, at significantly lower costs, rather  than private contractors. Alternatives to detention align with international standards, such as the Global Compact for Migration, of which the UK is a signatory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when large numbers of people were released from detention, the UN Network on Migration Working Group on Alternatives To Detention stated that this presented:

“a unique opportunity to look beyond the current crisis and showcase concretely how migration can be governed without resorting to detention, as envisioned by the framework for action provided by the Global Compact for Migration, including in its Objective 13.
States, United Nations entities, civil society organisations and other actors are encouraged to redouble their collaborative efforts to phase out the use of immigration detention – building on steps forward taken during the pandemic, documenting the positive impact of alternatives, reflecting on lessons learned, and ending as a matter of priority the detention of children, families and other migrants in vulnerable situations.”

The previous Conservative government failed to take this opportunity. We urge the current government not to do the same.

5. One simple ask

Any decision to expand detention must be accountable to the experiences of people directly affected. Their voices should be the compass guiding any choices about this deeply flawed system.

You can find the full letter with the signatories here, and the statement published on the AVID website.