Source · IMB Annual Report
Gatwick pre-departure accommodation
Year: 2020
Published: 26 Mar 2021
Type: Prison · Cat IRC
Recommendations: 2
Key concerns
Positive findings
The reporting year 2020 was exceptional due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the Gatwick Pre-departure Accommodation (PDA) being largely closed from March onwards. Only three families were held between January and March, none of whom were removed from the UK; all were released back into the community. Consequently, the Independent Monitoring Board's annual report for this period is necessarily limited in its scope and findings.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 0 | — |
| Self-harm incidents | 0 | — |
| ACCT cases opened | 4 | — |
| Prisoner assaults | 0 | — |
| Assaults on staff | 0 | — |
| Use of force | 0 | — |
| Drug finds | 0 | — |
Positive findings
The Board welcomed the good safeguarding practice observed, including the separation of a father from his family when a mother expressed fear of her husband. Medical staff were readily accessible to families, and all family members were screened on arrival with no recorded complaints regarding healthcare. The accommodation is family-friendly, with clean and well-decorated suites, and regular access to dedicated outdoor play areas. The Board appreciated the willingness of families, managers, and staff to engage positively during visits.
Key concerns
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
We do, however, repeat the general concern we expressed in our annual report last year, namely, that we continue to question whether any system that involves children who, despite the best efforts of staff, witness or overhear their parents’ considerable distress at what is happening to them, and who face forcible removal to a country they have no knowledge of, can itself be described as either fair or humane.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
We similarly remain very concerned about children being taken from their home to face forcible removal to a country that they have no knowledge of. We believe that this experience negatively impacts on vulnerable children and results in their unfair and unequal treatment.
Safety
Repeated
While the provision of legal advice is clearly crucial to families following their arrest and removal to the PDA, we repeat the concerns we expressed in last year’s annual report – namely, that it can often feel unreasonable for them to have been taken from their homes in the first place, at least until all legal avenues at that earlier stage have been exhausted. We remain concerned that the system as it is currently organised militates against the children’s sense of safety and security.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
We again ask the minister to consider the establishment of a system for monitoring the arrest and transfer into detention of families which is demonstrably independent of the Home Office.
Repeated
Response
The minister suggests that monitoring is currently carried out both by the Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) operational assurance team and by the Independent Family Returns Panel (IFRP). The ICE team, however, describes itself as ‘part of the Home Office’, and the IFRP exists to advise the Home Office on family removals. We believe that neither body can be seen to be manifestly independent of the Home Office. Therefore, neither is able to provide the critical arms’ length relationship with the Home Office that is central to the task of monitoring. The minister further suggests that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) also provides a system for monitoring the arrest and transfer of families. We accept that HMIP is indeed independent of the Home Office but it is not its task to monitor the arrest and transfer of families on an ongoing basis. HMIP provides a snapshot oversight of the processes it selects for scrutiny when it undertakes an inspection, and inspections may be relatively infrequent. |
Ministry of Justice | |
| 2 |
We ask the contractor PDA managers to ensure that, where a removal is likely to be traumatic, careful planning is consistently used, to avoid children being exposed to their parents’ distress.
Repeated
Response
This recommendation was accepted, but due to the suspension of the family returns process and the closure of the PDA after receiving only three families between January and March 2020, there has been no opportunity for the new contractor, Serco, to progress and implement this work. While we welcome the assurance that careful and coordinated planning meetings will be held for every family removal, we are repeating this recommendation in this current report, given the critically important need to secure properly the interests of any children caught up in this process of attempted removal from the UK. |
Governor / Director |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation, including laundry, showers | 0 | 0 |
| Equality | 0 | 0 |
| Escorts | 0 | 0 |
| Finance, including detainees’ centre accounts | 0 | 0 |
| Food and kitchens | 0 | 0 |
| Issues relating to detainees’ immigration case, including access to legal advice | 0 | 0 |
| Letters, faxes, visits, telephones, internet access | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 0 |
| Property during transfer or in another establishment or location | 0 | 0 |
| Property within centre | 0 | 0 |
| Purposeful activity, including education, paid work, training, library, other activities | 0 | 0 |
| Staff/detainee conduct, including bullying | 0 | 0 |
| Use of force, removal from association | 0 | 0 |
Other reports for Gatwick pre-departure accommodation
Report details
- Establishment
- Gatwick pre-departure accommodation
- Type
- Prison · Cat IRC
- Report year
- 2020
- Published
- 26 March 2021
- Responsible body
- Gatwick Pre-Departure Accommodation
- Recommendations
- 2
Service providers
Facility management
G4S
Healthcare
G4S subsidiary
Transfer contractor
Mitie
Voluntary sector support
Hibiscus Initiatives