‘Signs of violence’: asylum seekers arriving in France injured after being deported from UK. Do Asylum seekers deserve to be kept safe from harm and injury on arrival in the UK?

Are you Diane Taylor?

I very much hope this isn’t true.

What a shameful thing.

The evidence compiled by SSP has been submitted to the French Assembly’s cross-party inquiry into the impact of the Anglo-French border deals known as Le Touquet agreements- so we await to see what happens next....

What we don’t know from this account is whether the returned migrants were either trouble makers or bullied by other migrants or other people in the community where they were housed, so were selected for early return, or if they were mistreated by officials. I hope names and details are made available, there shoukd be records if either of the former two scenarios happened.

It does happen- see BBC Panorama programme " Undercover Britain's Immigration Secrets". An undercover reporter worked as a custody officer wearing a secret camera for months to expose conditions inside Brooke House, Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick airport in 2017- some 9 years ago. Footage showed abuse and violence, both physical and emotional and a toxic culture.

This lead to The Brook House Public enquiry- an independent investigation of allegations of inhuman and degrading treatment at Brook House. It identified systemic problems with healthcare provision, a failure of clinical safeguards and a "culture of dehumanisation"- noting that medical services sometimes failed to identify vulnerable detainees, torture survivors and mental ill individuals.

So not new, not recent. Does this culture prevail is one question. However the anti asylum seeker rhetoric has grown since 2017 and become much more political.

It seems to be that detainees should be cared for and safeguarded whist awaiting processing of their asylum claim and whilst awaiting deportation if their application is not granted - but am I in the minority I wonder.

I can't comment on current situation in detention centres Casdon. But I was involved in chairing Serious misconduct cases when some health professionals were earlier referred to their healthcare regulator. I had hoped the public enquiry, some years ago now, had lead to improvements in immigration detention centres across the board since 2017.

In my case experience then, Serious Incident Reports were not always completed. The harm/abuse the asylum seekers sustained was not as a result of other migrants in the detention facility but caused directly by the custody staff. Complaints made by the asylum seekers of the treatment and/or injuries they received were not always recorded or acted upon. The harm they received was not properly treated or documented by the health professionals in all circumstances. I read detainee medical records provided as evidence. The BBC under cover reported film footage at Brook House captured directly who caused the harm and abuse- i.e. staff. Witness statements of other employees provided evidence they were aware this went on and witnessed directly on occasion but feared speaking out. The asylum seekers had in effect become dehumanised to some staff ( not all staff) - ie a belief the ASs were not deserving of appropriate care and treatment.

The BBC undercover reported filmed such events at Brook House. The BBC had been contacted by a whistle blower.

OldFrill

Are you Diane Taylor?

Who is Dianne Taylor?

Whitewavemark2

I very much hope this isn’t true.

What a shameful thing.

I expect it is. We don't know the half of it. Many things are hushed up.

It's not surprising. When you realise how much bad feeling there is towards asylum seekers then some of their guards probably feel the same.

Unfortunately this will result in physical harm towards them by undisciplined people who should know better.