Source · IMB Annual Report

Charter Flight

Year: 2022 Published: 23 Jun 2023 Type: Prison · Cat IRC Recommendations: 7 Key concerns Positive findings

The CFMT monitored 12 charter removal and relocation operations in 2022, finding that returnees were generally treated kindly but experienced significant issues. Key concerns included prolonged confinement in vehicles, inconsistent use of force, and inadequate interpreting services, often exacerbating detainee distress. Despite some positive changes in escorting practice, the Board raised recommendations for HOIE and its contractor, particularly regarding vulnerability, financial preparation, and transit times.

Safety statistics

Incidents during reporting year

Indicator	This year	Previous
Use of force	35	—

Positive findings

The IMB Charter Flight Monitoring Team welcomed several positive changes in escorting practice, including filming pat-down searches, allowing unescorted walks up plane steps (unless risk assessed), and ensuring privacy in plane toilets. Returnees generally experienced kind and respectful treatment, and advance parties improved property assembly. The paramedics' services were sufficient, and interpreters were more consistently present.

Key concerns

6 items

Regime/Time Out of Cell Repeated The practice of confining returnees for hours in parked vehicles is unacceptable.

Safety The extent of use of force or of restraint on returnees to European destinations on the one hand and on returnees to non-European destinations on the other hand was noticeable. It must be kept under constant review.

Equality/Diversity The need assessments on which interpreters were booked for returnees to Europe were often unreliable. The assessments were made by IRC staff. It appeared that interpreters may not have been booked if a returnee had some knowledge of English. The information escorts must communicate is new and may seem complicated. The quality of these assessments must be improved. Additionally, the escort contractor must ensure that its staff consistently use Bigword, a telephone interpreting service available to them. The practice of using an English-speaking returnee to interpret for another returnee must cease.

Mental Health HOIE’s insistence on removing or trying to remove vulnerable people, some perhaps with mental health problems, may accord with policy but it is morally questionable.

Resettlement/Release Repeated Custodial staff or Home Office officials in the IRC must better manage expectations around returnees’ applications for a resettlement grant under the facilitated returns scheme. Secondly, HOIE must agree a best practice approach with the Prison Service to resolve the problem of returnees being removed with postal orders, received in prison, which they cannot cash in the destination country.

Regime/Time Out of Cell Repeated In each of its last four annual reports, the CFMT recommended that the use of airports far from the southeast be discontinued. The recommendation was rejected each time and the practice continued during the reporting period. The issue is perhaps now complicated by the opening of further detention sites. Positioning is therefore a core consideration. Returnees should be accommodated for removal in IRCs which are as close as possible to the departure port, as a matter of practice, not aspiration.

Recommendations

7 items · 3 repeated

#	Recommendation	Addressee
1	The extent of use of force or of restraint on returnees to European destinations on the one hand and on returnees to non-European destinations on the other hand was noticeable. It must be kept under constant review.	Home Office
2	The room in Derwentside IRC in which the women for the West Africa charter were assembled was not suitable for the numbers involved; the issue was exacerbated by timing (see section 4.2.6). They were individually transferred to the custody of the escorts in a small search room, which achieved privacy but was not ideal. Alternative arrangements must be set up for any future charter collections from that IRC.	Home Office
3	Returnees’ understandable anxieties about money could and should be ameliorated in advance. Custodial staff or Home Office officials in the IRC must better manage expectations around returnees’ applications for a resettlement grant under the facilitated returns scheme. Secondly, HOIE must agree a best practice approach with the Prison Service to resolve the problem of returnees being removed with postal orders, received in prison, which they cannot cash in the destination country: see sections 4.4.1 and 4.4.2. Repeated	Home Office
4	In each of its last four annual reports, the CFMT recommended that the use of airports far from the southeast be discontinued. The recommendation was rejected each time and the practice continued during the reporting period. The issue is perhaps now complicated by the opening of further detention sites. Positioning is therefore a core consideration. Returnees should be accommodated for removal in IRCs which are as close as possible to the departure port, as a matter of practice, not aspiration: see section 4.7.6. Repeated	Home Office
5	The practice of confining returnees for hours in parked vehicles is unacceptable: see section 4.7. The practice should cease. Repeated	Other
6	The need assessments on which interpreters were booked for returnees to Europe were often unreliable. The assessments were made by IRC staff. It appeared that interpreters may not have been booked if a returnee had some knowledge of English. The information escorts must communicate is new and may seem complicated. The quality of these assessments must be improved. Additionally, the escort contractor must ensure that its staff consistently use Bigword, a telephone interpreting service available to them. The practice of using an English-speaking returnee to interpret for another returnee must cease. It is clear from the official responses to the CFMT’s reports on the November and December operations that this is unacceptable to HOIE and the escort contractor: see section 4.13.	Other
7	The person escort record (PER) is an official record and should be a reliable source of evidence. This was not consistently achieved. It must be: see sections 4.16.4 and 4.16.5.	Other

Other reports for Charter Flight

2020 Published 21 Apr 2021 · Concerns

Report details

Establishment: Charter Flight
Type: Prison · Cat IRC
Report year: 2022
Published: 23 June 2023
Responsible body: Charter Flight Monitoring Team (CFMT)
Recommendations: 7

Service providers

Charity/Support

Hibiscus

Charter/Removal Operations

Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE)

Escort contractor

Mitie Care & Custody Limited (C&C)

Healthcare

IPRS Aeromed

Interpreting

Bigword

Resettlement Support

International Organisation for Migration (IOM)

Source links

IMB report page → imb.org.uk →