PEOPLE from Africa, eastern Europe and other parts of the world seeking refuge in Britain are being subjected to ‘horrific violence’ and abuse in detention and even on planes chartered to deport them, it is being alleged.
A report entitled, ‘Outsourcing abuse: The use and misuse of state-sanctioned force during the detention and removal of asylum seekers’, was launched at the start of this week at a press conference in London.
It covers ‘nearly 300 alleged assaults’ against deportees, but speakers at Monday’s press conference claimed the allegations are just the ‘tip of an iceberg’.
The accounts given to the press conference of alleged abuse and violence were so disturbing that one member of the audience broke down in a flood of tears.
In the report’s foreword, former Chief Inspector of Prisons David Ramsbotham describes a ‘culture of disbelief’ at the Home Office towards people who have fled to Britain seeking political asylum.
Ramsbotham adds: ‘I suspect that initial official response to this disturbing dossier will be along the same lines, because, together with every right thinking person, those who read it will not want to believe what it contains.’
But he said that the dossier contained ‘painstaking and often painful research’ into the claims of abuse by detainees.
Dr Frank Arnold, from Medical Justice, stated: ‘I have seen many serious injuries with long lasting effects; crushing of the nerves at the wrist from forceful pulling on handcuffs, limitation of neck movement by patients whose heads were pushed under aircraft seats, numbness of the face after blows around the cheek and eye.
‘I have also seen a dislocated wrist, giant bruises and swellings the size of my fist.
‘I have seen far worse abuses but do not have the patient’s permission to reveal confidential medical information.
‘Our report includes evidence from 18 independent doctors.
‘Some of these findings are worse still. They include dislocation to the knee requiring a plaster cast and several people rendered unable to walk for extended periods.
‘Some were denied wheelchairs, pain relief and other essential treatment although in state custody.’
Emma Ginn, from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC), commented: ‘The Home Office uses charter flights and military planes to deport to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and have even arranged a private jet to deport one suicidal 14-year-old girl and her mother.
‘Asylum applications are at a 14-year low, yet the proportional use of detention has increased seven-fold.
‘The government is driven by seemingly arbitrary targets on deportation and plans a near doubling of detention centre capacity.
‘We feel this all may lead to further abuse.
‘One shudders to think what will happen if they fulfil their announcement to deal with 450,000 unresolved cases in five years.
‘A third of the cases we documented were regarding alleged assaults against women and a significant number were cases of children who witnessed their parent being assaulted.’
Ginn went on to claim that ‘This report is just the “tip of an iceberg’’ of horrific violence’, adding that a dossier of 48 cases had been forwarded by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for investigation.
The report says that ‘many of the alleged victims have since been deported to their home countries and many of them not heard of again’.
Ginn spoke of one alleged incident in which a Nigerian man was being deported on a commercial flight.
She said one passenger was arrested after protests at the way the man was being treated.
All 136 passengers on board were then removed from the plane, before the deportee was flown back to Nigeria – and the passenger who was arrested was now facing trial, she added.
In Case A3 of the dossier, a 32-year-old man from Jamaica, Clifford Hines, alleged that on June 28, 2007, he was assaulted by detention custody officers (DCOs) at Colnbrook ‘after he complained about food’.
The dossier adds: ‘Mr Hines says that the DCOs came to his cell and assaulted him, injuring his face, his right knee and left leg.
‘The next morning, on the 29th June 2007, Mr Hines said that he had not eaten or been given water and that he was very upset.
‘He says that three different DCOs came in and assaulted him again; this time one of them sat on his right knee and caused further damage. Mr Hines has an old injury in this knee from childhood.
‘Dr Charmian Goldwyn (independent doctor) wrote a medico-legal report on the 19th July 2007, noting; “His right knee was tender, hot and swollen. There was a great deal of fluid in the joint. There was limitation, he could only flex the knee to about 15 degrees. Most of his other bruises had healed as I saw him almost a month after the assaults.’’ ’
The dossier says that his status is ‘not known’.
Case B2 concerns ‘Ms. HY’, 35, from Sudan.
The dossier says that Ms HY claimed that on May 14, 2007, three immigration escorts came to the reception at Yarl’s Wood IRC to take her to Heathrow for removal on a flight to Bahrain.
She alleged ‘that the female immigration escort searched her, lifting up her clothes in front of the two male escorts’.
The report on her case goes on to allege: ‘She was handcuffed for the journey to Heathrow airport and again when she was taken onto the plane.
‘Because of her distress on the plane, the pilot asked the escorts to remove her.
‘On return to the airport the escorts assaulted her with blows all over the body – including her left jaw and ear and her upper thigh, and a repeated jabbing into her right eye.
‘Ms. HY claims the immigration escorts made racist comments.
‘Dr Richard Bennett (independent doctor) examined Ms. HY on the June 7th 2007 at Yarl’s Wood IRC.
‘Ms HY’s injuries were reported to include bleeding and swelling of the wrists leaving scars, small linear wounds, puncture type lesions, and partial deafness in the left ear.
‘The alleged assault was reported to Heathrow CID who took no further action.
‘A complaint was made to the Detention Services Complaints Section on the July 2nd 2007 relating to excessive force used by the escort; the allegations were not upheld. A request to the Prison Ombudsman to investigate the complaint was made on the 20th November 2007.
‘Status: released from detention, facing redetention and removal.’
In another alleged incident, Case D5 in the dossier, a ‘40-year-old Nigerian, Mr. El claims that eight officers were involved in a “dawn raid’’ on 18th April 2007 to take him, his wife and two small children into detention.
‘Mr El’s wife suffers serious mental illness and became very distressed.
‘Mr El says that both he and his wife were handcuffed and that one officer hit him with an extended baton on his left shin after he was handcuffed.
‘He says he was bleeding from his shin which led to scarring and that the alleged assault was witnessed by both his small children.
‘The family were taken to Yarl’s Wood IRC.’
Several speakers at Monday’s press conference to launch the report also alleged they had been assaulted
Miss. MM, from Zimbabwe, alleged she was ‘assaulted, pushed down on the floor and handcuffed’ as she was about to be taken on a plane to be deported.
‘I started screaming,’ she continued. ‘They were kicking me from behind.’
She said she was forced down on a seat between two escorts and ‘my head was pushed down between my knees, which was very painful’.
She added that ‘when I was removed from the plane I was taken to a van where the assault continued and I was handcuffed all the way from Heathrow Airport to the detention centre.’
The handcuffs made her bleed, she said, alleging that guards told her ‘no one would listen to me because I was an asylum seeker.’
She said she was actually prosecuted for assault but was acquitted.
‘Nothing has been done to compensate me for all the pain and trauma I suffered,’ she continued, adding: ‘Even if you say nothing, this abuse will still continue.
‘It takes courage to stand up if you are facing this situation.’
Another woman, Beatrice, alleged: ‘I was badly beaten. They have destroyed my life. I can’t concentrate, I can’t do anything.
‘I’m standing up here on behalf of thousands of asylum seekers. We are human beings, all of us.’
Amos, from Nigeria, accused the British government of using detention ‘to terrorise’ people seeking asylum.
Lawyer Harriet Wistrich praised the ‘incredible courage’ of former detainees who had come to the press conference.
‘It’s a terrible thing they go through,’ she said.
Many people were fleeing torture and abuse in their own countries, yet ‘only an exceptional few have been able to gain refugee status’ in Britain, she added.
‘We are doing this to people who are frightened, frail, traumatised people. The effect is re-traumatising. This is what we have to shout about,’ she told reporters
Wistrich said later: ‘We are thinking of passing the report to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture because these allegations do amount to torture.’
