Speeches and Statements
Inspection Reports on Short-Term Holding Centres in Calais and Heathrow: Government Response
Statement by Tony McNulty, Home Office Minister, responding to Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons' report on the unannounced inspections of the five non-residential short term holding facilities at Heathrow and three out of four in France at the ports of Calais and Coquelles.
Responding to Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) report on the unannounced inspections of the five non-residential short term holding facilities at Heathrow and three out of four in France at the ports of Calais and Coquelles, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said:
"I welcome today's reports and particularly their acknowledgement that custody staff at the Heathrow facilities 'were caring and respectful' and 'alert' to the needs of individuals being held, while staff at Calais and Coquelles were 'commendably respectful and caring in their dealings with detainees'.
"Short-term detention in the UK is used when further investigations are needed on individuals arriving in the UK, or, if an individual is refused entry, pending their removal on the next available return flight. In France short-term detention is used for inadequately documented passengers and illegal entrants attempting to enter the UK, prior to their being handed to French authorities.
"The power to detain is an essential part of protecting the integrity of and public confidence in our immigration controls and we take the welfare of detainees extremely seriously and as such we recognise that there may be a need to put in place a system of independent monitoring of these short-term detention facilities.
"It is important to emphasise that these facilities are non-residential holding rooms and are intended to hold people very briefly - usually for no more than a few hours. It will always be the case that we aim to keep the time an individual spends in these facilities to a minimum, but with arrivals at ports operating 24 hours a day there is a clear need to use holding rooms during the night.
"It is not possible to comment in detail at this stage on each of the recommendations contained in these reports. When we have had the opportunity to consider the reports in full we will draw up action plans dealing with each individual recommendation."
The Immigration Service has taken action to tackle many of the issues raised by Anne Owers in her reports. This includes:
- clarifying the position on the primacy of UK law at the short-term holding facilities;
- ensuring that all new immigration staff working with children have undergone enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks, with all existing staff receiving the additional checks in the near future. All immigration staff already receive security checks, which include criminal record checks;
- full training for staff on dealing with children and their families as part of their training;
- recognising that there may be a need to put in place a system of independent monitoring of these short-term detention facilities, in line with existing monitoring of the wider detention estate; and
- reviewing use of the Coquelles Freight short-term holding facility following the inspector’s criticisms.
Notes to Editors
- HMCIP undertook unannounced inspections of the short-term holding facilities at:
- Calais Seaport, Coquelles Freight, and Coquelles Tourist in France between 2-3 August 2005; and
- Queen's Building, Heathrow and Terminals 1-4, Heathrow Airport between 10-13 October 2005.
