Legal advice delays for detained migrants - report

Detained migrants due to be sent to France can wait up to a week without getting legal help, according to a report.

An inspector wrote that detainees at Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre had to wait to attend advice surgeries, which some "attended several times before receiving representation".

The centre, near Gatwick Airport, mostly holds small boat arrivals to be returned to France under the "one in, one out" deal that sees the UK take in migrants believed to have a legitimate asylum claim.

The Home Office said it would consider the recommendations and was "working to strengthen support for vulnerable individuals across the detention estate".

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) inspected the centre unannounced between 15 June and 2 July and found it was "a reasonably safe and decent establishment".

But its report also highlighted a series of concerns.

HMIP said: "Given that more than half of all detainees were eventually released, there is a question as to why so many were locked up at a huge cost to the taxpayer in the first place."

The report also highlighted that detainees "lived in poorly ventilated rooms", and communal bathrooms had "a pervasive foul smell" due to drainage problems.

Inspectors also found "poor governance of health care services" and "poor" mental health provision.

They were also concerned that "detainees experienced barriers when trying to communicate with family, friends and legal advisers".

Staffing at the centre was "generally good" and most detainees said staff "treated them well", inspectors said.

One detainee had said smugglers "made him work on a construction site in Libya" to pay for his crossing, but he was never asked why he thought France was unsafe.

He told staff he was "tortured in Libya", but the information was never passed to the Home Office, and it was only when he found a lawyer three weeks later that a modern slavery referral was made, the inspector said.

Inspectors said detainees being removed to France "were given insufficient information" and some vulnerable detainees "had been released homeless".

They "needed speedy legal representation" but in some instances it took "up to a week to receive a legal advice surgery appointment", said HMIP.

Over six months, 21 detainees brought from a processing centre in Manston, Kent were later found to be children, according to the report.

Inspectors found that "poor practice and significant delays in dealing with age dispute cases" meant that some children were "not safeguarded while their claims were resolved".

The centre held 136 men at the time of the inspection.

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."

Serco, which manages Tinsley House, said its staff "carry out a challenging role with dedication and professionalism" and it was "pleased that the majority of detainees were positive about their relationships with staff".

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