Treatment of Harmondsworth Detainees

Ellie Keen — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

PRESS RELEASE

On Monday 23 June, the High Court will determine whether an independent investigation must be held after vulnerable detainees were locked in flooded cells without food or water while fires burned during a disturbance in Harmondsworth detention centre.

Liberty is bringing the legal challenge on behalf of three individual detainees who claim that during the November 2006 Harmondsworth disturbance they were denied food and water for up to 40 hours; locked in overcrowded, pitch-black rooms flooded with water for more than 24 hours; forced to urinate and defecate in front of each other; and strip searched in front of several officers. Permission to judicially review the Home Office and Kalyx Ltd (the contractor running the centre) was granted by the High Court in March.

Liberty’s Legal Officer Alex Gask, who brought the legal challenge, said:

“This appalling mistreatment of immigration detainees will only be stopped if exposed through a root and branch independent inquiry. It is shameful that these men were abandoned to pain, fear and hunger while in UK detention.”

One detainee told how he was taken to the centre’s medical clinic suffering from a bad back. ‘They just abandoned me,’ the man said. ‘There was no doctor and, when I asked where the doctor was, the detention officers laughed at me … One of them stepped on the hem of my trousers to make me fall over. He then started laughing and called me a “fucking negro”.’

In January 2008, the Border and Immigration Agency’s race relations audit found that repeated patterns of alleged racist incidents at Harmondsworth detention centre were missed by the in-house investigation process and that regular taunting of detainees by some officers went unchallenged.

The disturbance in November 2006 allegedly began shortly after the publication of a damning report on conditions in the centre by the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMIP). Four detainees were acquitted of conspiracy to commit violent disorder in February 2008.

Liberty will argue that the inquiry should cover the appalling conditions of detention under the Home Office and Kalyx Ltd which led to the disturbance taking place. Evidence from the claimants and other witnesses about the conditions in Harmondsworth substantiate the HMIP report, including:

an individual with HIV/AIDs being “outed” by prison officials and subsequently abused by other detainees
an individual with diabetes being denied insulin treatment • an individual with a visible skin disease bullied by prison officials
arbitrary solitary confinement • no effective complaints procedure
guards using racist taunts and beating detainees without provocation
detainees beaten by guards for such behaviour as requesting the faxes sent them by their lawyers.

The Home Office’s investigation into the disturbance led by Robert Whalley and published in July 2007 found that, “the underlying causes are still there and, without any changes, the same thing could happen again at either establishment.” Not a single detainee was spoken to throughout the Home Office investigation.

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128

Notes to Editors

1. The High Court of Justice will hold a judicial review on Monday and Tuesday 23-24 June 2008 on behalf of three claimants who were detained at Harmondsworth detention centre in November 2006 against the Secretary of State for the Home Office and Kalyx Limited (formerly “UK Detention Services Ltd.”) Liberty argues that the Home Office is in violation of Article 3 of the Human Rights Act which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment by failing to conduct an independent inquiry into the disturbance. For a copy of the application contact jenc@liberty-human-rights.org.uk

2. Liberty has compiled Harmondsworth detainees’ witness statements about the conditions in Harmondsworth both during and before the disturbance. The statements reveal that solitary confinement as a punishment for speaking out at Harmondsworth is common, according to Liberty’s witnesses. ‘If we made a complaint we would be given a warning,’ one man known as ‘K’ told Liberty. ‘If we were given three warnings, we would be put in an isolated cell. We were scared of making complaints against officers because we expected to be treated badly if we did. We were treated like pigs and very unfairly, as if we were serious criminals.’

3. Anne Owers, Chief Inspector Prisons, visited Harmondsworth for an unannounced inspection on 17-21 July 2006. Her report on this inspection, published on 28 November 2006 was “undoubtedly the poorest report we have issued on an IRC”. This report is available here

Harmondsworth | ukwatch.net

Treatment of Harmondsworth Detainees

PRESS RELEASE