Source · IMB Annual Report

Heathrow Short Term Holding Facility

Year: 2020 Published: 16 Jun 2020 Type: Prison · Cat IRC Recommendations: 27 Key concerns Positive findings

This IMB report for Short Term Holding Facilities at London Heathrow, London City Airports, and Becket and Eaton House Reporting Centres (Feb 2019-Jan 2020) highlights concerns about the suitability of accommodation for longer stays and children, and overcrowding due to transport delays. Key issues include detainee access to medication and legal advice, the quality of DCO inductions and engagement, and challenges in Board monitoring of removals. While positive developments were noted in some areas, several critical recommendations from previous years remain unaddressed.

Safety statistics

Incidents during reporting year

Indicator	This year	Previous
Self-harm incidents	1	—

Positive findings

The Board welcomes significant improvements made by Mitie Care and Custody (C&C) to the holding rooms since May 2018, with a decline in outstanding maintenance issues. Border Force officers generally engage professionally and sympathetically with detainees, and co-operative working between Border Force and C&C has improved. Excellent DCO inductions were observed, and an independent adult is now present during unaccompanied children's interviews. The Mental Health Toolkit introduced in April 2019 is working well, preventing long stays for individuals with mental health conditions. DCOs are noted for good care in non-medication situations and Border Force for recognizing vulnerabilities.

Key concerns

13 items

Estate/Conditions The accommodation at Heathrow Airport is adequate for short terms of detention but it is not satisfactory for overnight stays, nor for children to be held for more than a few hours. At London City Airport the accommodation is very cramped and unsatisfactory. The holding rooms at Becket House and Eaton House are often overcrowded due to unnecessarily long waits for transport to Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs).

Healthcare Repeated Detainees are not allowed access to any medication that they have in their possession, even though this may put their health and well-being at risk. The Home Office is now addressing this, but the Board is still very concerned about the present situation and the amount of time taken to reach a solution.

Resettlement/Release Repeated The Board is concerned that detainees at the airports cannot easily access legal advice. The services purported to be accessible through an advertised phone number are non-existent.

Safety Repeated When detainees leave Eaton House almost all of them are handcuffed until they are inside the vehicle. Individual risk assessment should lead to fewer people being handcuffed and instead they should be guided with a light arm-hold.

Staffing Detention custody officers (DCOs) are usually kind and courteous towards detainees but, particularly at Heathrow, the Board is still not confident that inductions are consistently carried out to a high standard. During long hours of detention individual detainees can feel increasingly anxious and isolated and the Board is concerned that some DCOs do not engage sufficiently with the detainees to look after their needs.

Other We are nevertheless concerned that the lack of capacity for Board members to routinely travel in the new vehicles used for removals has compromised the Board’s ability to monitor some removals effectively.

Estate/Conditions Showers are available in all the rooms, apart from Terminal 5. However, due to recurrent episodes of concern about the presence of legionella bacteria, the showers are often closed for weeks or months at a time.

Estate/Conditions The rooms are windowless with no natural light and some suffer from fluctuating temperatures, sometimes being very cold at night, both in summer and in winter.

Staffing Repeated The Board repeats the request for dual handset phones so that Detainee Custody Officers (DCOs) and detainees can use the Big Word interpretation service more easily and with privacy.

Estate/Conditions Repeated The Board repeats its recommendation, previously rejected, that the Home Office should provide residential accommodation for children at Heathrow so that they are not restricted to small rooms with no natural light and no fresh air for many hours.

Estate/Conditions In Terminal 5 the family room is a small partitioned area within the main holding room, with frosted glass. It is small and narrow with a table so positioned that it is difficult for occupants to lie down to rest. It can only hold one family at a time. To use the toilets, the parents and children have to go into the main holding room, where adults are being detained, and use their facilities.

Regime/Time Out of Cell Repeated The Board finds it unsatisfactory that, despite previous recommendations, detainees still have no direct access to the internet. The internet is an essential communication tool for both text and voice-based communication such as WhatsApp to contact family, friends and employers.

Regime/Time Out of Cell After detainees had been brought back to the airport from IRCs for interview, those being returned to detention have often had to wait many hours, often into the late evening, for transport back to the IRCs. It was found that Border Force officers were not informing C&C that their enquiries had concluded and that the person should be returned to detention.

Recommendations

27 items · 7 repeated

#	Recommendation	Addressee
2	The Home Office should ensure that the new system is provided as quickly as possible to ensure that people in detention can access their own prescription medication and common non-prescription medication (paras. 9.2 - 9.5; 18.2 – 18.3; 26.2; 34.2). Repeated Response The Home Office is now addressing this, but the Board is still very concerned about the present situation and the amount of time taken to reach a solution. The Home Office is at last, with the help of NHS England, appointing a pharmacist to set up a system for training DCOs in all STHFs.	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport T3] The Home Office should arrange for the layout of the Terminal 3 office/reception area to be modified to enable both DCOs to exercise continuous surveillance of the detainees in their care (para. 7.2).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow & London City Airports] The Home Office should arrange that detainees have effective and timely access to legal advice (para. 8.10 – 8.11; 17.4). Repeated Response In February 2020 the Board met with Home Office representatives and discussed ways in which this could be addressed. The Home Office agreed to consider these and the Board awaits their response.	Home Office
2	[All holding rooms] The Board repeats the request for dual handset phones so that Detainee Custody Officers (DCOs) and detainees can use the Big Word interpretation service more easily and with privacy (para. 4.10; 17.2). Repeated Response In response to last year’s annual report the Home Office said they would provide dual handset phones to facilitate this process. They had not arrived by the end of this reporting year.	Home Office
2	[All holding rooms] The Home Office should speed up their introduction of electronic translation devices, which they have already trialled (para. 4.11; 8.4; 17.3). Response The Home Office has said they will provide them for all the holding rooms, but they too are yet to arrive.	Home Office
2	[All holding rooms] The Home Office should arrange for Wi-Fi and internet access for detainees, even if it is only available when DCOs can supervise (para. 8.12 – 8.13; 12.13 – 12.15; 25.4; 33.4). Repeated	Home Office
2	[Becket House] The Home Office is requested to engage with the Board as soon as possible in consultation on the design of the new holding rooms in a facility in Warehouse K near to the Excel Centre, London E16 (para. 28.1).	Home Office
2	[Eaton House] The Home Office should progress the provision of new, expanded, holding rooms in Eaton House as soon as possible. The expectation was that work would commence in April 2020 (para. 36.1 – 36.4).	Home Office
2	[London City Airport] The Home Office is encouraged to progress the provision of new holding rooms in London City Airport as soon as possible. (para. 12.4 – 12.7; 15.4).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport T5] The Home Office should improve the facilities for families and children in Terminal 5 (paras. 6.10 - 6.11).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Board repeats its recommendation, previously rejected, that the Home Office should provide residential accommodation for children at Heathrow so that they are not restricted to small rooms with no natural light and no fresh air for many hours. For those waiting for turnaround flights, the family detention facility at Tinsley House is too far away for a long enough stay that would be beneficial to them. If any new buildings are planned for Heathrow this should be made a priority (para. 6.4). Repeated	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport T5] The Home Office should provide a shower in Terminal 5 to comply with the National Holding Room Standards (para. 3.9).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Home Office should ensure that Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) make the necessary fitment changes to ensure that the showers in all the terminals are not subject to frequent closure due to concern about legionella bacteria (para. 3.9).	Home Office
2	[Becket House] The Home Office should ensure that new holding rooms in a facility in Warehouse K, London E16 will include the provision of showers. (para. 21.6).	Home Office
2	[Becket House] The Board recommends that the Home Office arranges for the provision of more frequent transport between Becket House and the IRCs to avoid excessive waits for detainees and over-crowding in the holding room (para. 27.2).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Board recommends that the Home Office, the Detention Contractor and Border Force agree a protocol so that people waiting for return flights are allowed to stay in the holding rooms, if necessary beyond 24 hours, so that they are not sent to IRCs for stays that are insufficient to allow time to rest (paras. 10.4 -10.5).	Home Office
2	[London Heathrow Airport] Additionally, or in the alternative, there should be an amendment to the Mitie Care and Custody (C&C) Service Level Agreement reducing the contractual window of 8 hours for providing transport between the Heathrow Airport holding rooms and the Heathrow IRC (paras. 10.4 – 10.5).	Home Office
2	[Eaton House] The Board remains to be satisfied that restraints are being applied by escorts only when it is appropriate to do so. The Detention Contractor is recommended to reinforce the briefing of its escort crews to ensure that restraints are applied only when a dynamic risk assessment indicates that it is necessary and proportionate to do so (paras 35.3 – 35.5). Repeated	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Detention Contractor should arrange for a DCO or other responsible adult to sit in the family holding room with a young or otherwise vulnerable unaccompanied child (para. 6.6).	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Detention Contractor should ensure that DCOs are proactive in their care for older children (para. 6.7).	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Detention Contractor should ensure that the toys are kept in good repair and in a clean condition and that the DVD boxes are stored so that children can easily see what is available (para.6.12).	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Detention Contractor should ensure that DCOs use the Big Word interpretation service for inducting non-English speaking passengers and not just assume that passengers with a smattering of English really understand what they are being told (para. 4.9).	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] The Detention Contractor should try new initiatives to encourage DCOs to be more proactive in their care of the detainees and to re-engage with them a short while after the initial induction and then at regular intervals (para. 4.13).	Other
2	[All holding rooms] The Detention Contractor is encouraged to provide in each holding room a pack of translated information cards summarising key messages from the induction process, e.g. availability of hot meals, drinks, pillows, blankets, phone calls (para. 4.12).	Other
2	[All holding rooms] The Detention Contractor should ensure that DCOs are trained so that they know which of the meals from different manufacturers are halal (para. 8.5).	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] We repeat the recommendation that the Detention Contractor should ensure that the DCOs check that the sacred books are in good condition and stored respectfully (para. 8.8). Repeated	Other
2	[London Heathrow Airport] For detainees brought from IRCs to the airport for interview, Border Force should ensure that their officers inform C&C when their enquiries have concluded so that the movement order for transport is activated (para. 4.5). Response Border Force is now aware of this problem and is issuing instructions to all its officers to inform C&C when their enquires have concluded.	Other

Report details

Establishment: Heathrow Short Term Holding Facility
Type: Prison · Cat IRC
Report year: 2020
Published: 16 June 2020
Responsible body: London Heathrow and City Airports
Recommendations: 27

Service providers

Airport operator

Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL)

Airport paramedic service

London Ambulance Service

Border security and immigration enforcement

Border Force

Contract management of holding rooms

Mitie Care and Custody (C&C)

Detainee Custody Officers

Mitie Care and Custody (C&C)

Escort contractor for IRC transport

Mitie Care and Custody (C&C)

Healthcare partner

NHS England

Transport contractor for asylum accommodation

Clearsprings

Source links

IMB report page → imb.org.uk →