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Articles: Immigration cells 'like kennels'

Posted by admin on Wednesday, April 05, 2006 - 08:13 AM

Cells used by British officials to hold immigration detainees in Calais were so small staff dubbed them "dog kennels", a prisons watchdog report says.

Calais: Security to stop would-be migrants

Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers' report criticised three immigration detention centres at the ferry port. British officials work at Calais to stop illegal entry to the UK by ferry. But Ms Owers said staff were unsure whether French or English law applied - or whether they could stop attempted suicides, fights or escape bids. The Chief Inspector of Prisons has powers to make unannounced visits to immigration removal or detention centres. In August 2005, Ms Owers' teams went into three units relating to immigration enforcement operations - one at Calais Seaport and the other two at the Coquelles tourist and freight terminals. The three units are used to hold temporarily people found attempting to smuggle themselves into the UK in the back of a lorry or by other means.

Detention: Prisons watchdog has criticised system

In her report, Ms Owers said: "Accommodation at Coquelles freight terminal was disrespectful and wholly inadequate, and hygiene arrangements were insufficient to cope with detainees who might have travelled in the backs of lorries in unsanitary conditions." Staff had described the 13ft by 10ft (4m by 3m) cells, which featured hole-in-the-ground toilets, as "dog kennels". On busy days as many as six people would be held in cells with no provision to separate men and women. The facilities, run by Group 4 Securicor, had inadequate furnishing, ventilation and heating, said Ms Owers. Eleven children were among the 661 people to have been detained at the Calais Seaport holding centre between May and July last year. While the average detention was four hours, the longest detainee were there for 17 hours. In all, 17% of those held were given permission to enter Britain. In the report, Ms Owers makes 49 recommendations including ensuring that an independent monitoring board get regular access. 'Treated like parcels' In a separate report on temporary detention at Heathrow Airport, Ms Owers praised staff - but said the system generally was inhumane. "There was little evidence of individual care within the immigration removal system itself," she said. "Some of those we observed in detention had been dealt with as though they were parcels, not people. "Immigration decision-makers appeared to be focused on cases, files and targets, rather than people. This is neither humane nor, in the end, efficient." Immigration minister Tony McNulty said he agreed that independent monitoring of the centres may need to be improved. "These facilities are non-residential holding rooms and are intended to hold people very briefly - usually for no more than a few hours," said Mr McNulty. "But with arrivals at ports operating 24 hours a day, there is a clear need to use holding rooms during the night." But Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "Asylum seekers are being treated as packages to be processed and removed rather than as very vulnerable human beings. "The government could make a start by ensuring that children never end up in centres where child protection processes are not in place and where people face a lack of basics like blankets for stays up to 36 hours."

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