About 800 cases to be reviewed after immigration minister orders system to be put on hold following court of appeal decision it was ‘structurally unfair’
Guardian News and Media/London
More than 100 asylum seekers locked up in immigration detention centres are expected to be released as a result of the immediate suspension of the Home Office’s fast-track detention system, ministers have announced.
They are among more than 800 asylum seekers, detained in Yarl’s Wood and other such centres, whose cases will be urgently reviewed after the Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, ordered the temporary suspension of the system.
His announcement came in the face of legal challenges over the lack of sufficient safeguards to prevent victims of torture and trafficking being caught up in the system. The appeals part of the system was ruled unlawful last Friday by the court of appeal, which declared its limit of seven working days as “structurally unfair”.
“In the light of these issues, I have decided to temporarily suspend the operation of the detained fast-track policy,” said Brokenshire. “I hope this pause to be short in duration, perhaps only a matter of weeks, but I will only resume operation of this policy when I am sure the right structures are in place to minimise any risk of unfairness.”
Campaigners, including the Detention Action charity that brought the successful legal challenges, said they hoped this would mark the end to Britain’s routine detention of asylum seekers.
Most of the asylum seekers held under the fast-track system are expected to be re-detained without leaving the removal centre as they are already held because they are at risk of absconding or face imminent removal. But it is expected that more than 100 will be released from detention centres including Yarl’s Wood, Harmondsworth and Colnbrook.
The asylum seekers likely to be released are expected to be those who have only recently entered the system. Foreign offenders being deported, others being sent back to a safe third country, or those facing a high chance of removal are highly unlikely to be released.
Ministers will urgently put in place stronger safeguards to ensure that vulnerable people such as torture victims are screened out from the fast-track process.
Brokenshire said the government was committed to its underlying principles “and believes for the most part that it is operating well and is removing back to their own countries those whose asylum claims are clearly unfounded. But we must be satisfied that our safeguards for dealing with vulnerable applicants throughout the system are working well enough to minimise any risk of unfairness.”
The fast-track system has been used by the Home Office since 2000 and thousands of people have been removed from the country in the last 15 years. The suspension is a major victory for campaign groups and charities which have argued that the fast-track system risked unfairly detaining victims of torture and trafficking.
Jerome Phelps, the director of Detention Action , said: “We welcome this announcement. We hope that this will mark the end of the UK’s routine detention of asylum seekers. It is a further step away from the systematic overuse of detention that was rightly criticised by a cross-party parliamentary inquiry this year.
“We hope that the Home Office will accept the judgments of the courts and work with civil society to build an asylum system that is both fast and fair, with alternatives to detention that are both cheaper and more just.”
Bamidele, a member of the Freed Voices group whose asylum claim was rejected under the fast-track policy, said: “The detained fast track is nothing short of a kangaroo court. I received no fair trial. The result was fixed from the moment I walked in the room.
“The stress left my health in tatters - so much so that they eventually had to release me. Four years later, with time to properly make my case, I was given leave to remain. The detained fast track belongs on the scrapheap of UK human rights history.”
Sile Reynolds, Freedom from Torture’s lead asylum policy adviser, said: “Freedom from Torture strongly welcomes this admission by the Home Office that the detained fast track is not working. The immigration minister has now committed to review the system, but we question whether review can tackle fundamental flaws which are in the very nature of the system.”
