Refugee detention centres are harming women - they should close, say experts

Dr Monish Bhatia, a lecturer in criminology at Abertay University in Dundee, spent nearly five years researching the conditions faced by refugees in the UK and found that the trauma of being incarcerated in removal centres only exacerbated existing psychological ailments, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which is comparatively high among asylum seekers fleeing war zones, torture and abuse.

Dr Bhatia said he was opposed to detention centres because they were "fundamentally counter-productive".

He said: "Detention centres are detention centres, so whether it's Yarl's Wood or Dungavel the core principle is exactly the same: we are taking away liberty from people who haven't actually committed any crime, and this is very important for the public to know.

"I say shut down all these detention centres and keep people in the community. That's more effective, and I'll tell you why: a lot of these individuals have post-traumatic stress disorder, so keeping them in detention only makes their condition worse.

"I spoke to a charity social worker who said she works for weeks and months with asylum seekers suffering PTSD and she finds that because she is working with them and they are in the community, their condition is slowly stabilising. But then they go in the detention centre and they come back out even worse.

"So it's not actually solving any problems, it's making it worse."

Female asylum seekers also become particularly vulnerable, he said, as they may be pregnant, have suffered rape or been victims of sex trafficking.

Dr Bhatia's concerns echo those of the charity, Medical Justice, which is highlighting the dangers faced by pregnant asylum seekers who are being wrongly detained or deprived of appropriate medical care while being held at detention centres.

Dr Bhatia said he encountered one woman who had been trafficked to the UK from West Africa as a sex slave.

He said: "When her 'boyfriend' came to know that she was pregnant, he dropped her off in a secluded location and ran away. She had no idea where she was.

"With the help of local charities she applied for asylum. She was taken to a detention centre, but they did not subject her to medical examination. Now this woman was six months pregnant, and she had a cocktail of sexually transmitted diseases - she had chlamydia, she had gonorrhoea, she had Hepatitis B.

"During the interview she told me she did not even know who the father of the baby was because there were so many men who used to pay her 'boyfriend' to have sex with her. She said she was raped on several occasions to the point where every time a man would come in the room she would close her eyes because she did not want to see who that person was."

The Home Office's own rules stipulate that pregnant women should not be held in detention centres at all, except where their removal from the UK is imminent.

However, the charity Medical Justice says this policy is being repeatedly breached, with expectant mothers held for "weeks or months" at a time before being released back into the community. There have also been reports that some female detainees who were pregnant were told that it "was normal" to bleed when they asked to see a doctor.

Although detainees have access to medical care at removal centres, Morag Forbes, a Scottish midwife who volunteers with the charity at Yarl's Wood removal centre in Bedfordshire, said it is often patchy and unreliable.

She said: "The very first visit that I did on my own, I saw a woman that was experiencing abdominal pain and other symptoms which, combined with the gestation of pregnancy that I had estimated, made me think that she could have an ectopic pregnancy - a pregnancy that's located outside the uterus.

"If that proceeds undiagnosed then at some point that will rupture, at which point it becomes an immediately life-threatening situation.

"In the end she was diagnosed with not having an ectopic pregnancy, but it took ten days from my recommendation that this woman needed an urgent scan before she was sent to the local hospital.

"There is good evidence that detention is not suitable for pregnant women and that it's injurious to their health. I think first of all the mental health impact of detention needs to be considered.

"One woman who I saw that I was very concerned about in detention went on to be released, but was then sectioned under the mental health act as a direct result, I believe, of the deterioration of her mental health in detention."

Yarl's Wood has been at the centre of a scandal over "state-sanctioned abuse of women" amid allegations of widespread depression and self-harm, routine humiliation of female detainees by male guards, racism, and sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, at Dungavel in Lanarkshire there have been reports of up to 70 detainees going on hunger strike in protest to changes which will force failed asylum seekers in Scotland to travel hundreds of miles to Liverpool to lodge appeals against deportation - as first reported by the Sunday Herald.

Elaine Connelly, Women's Community Development Worker at Scottish Refugee Council said they wanted to see Home Office interviewers trained in the psychological impact of sexual violence and trauma.

She said: "Women who flee violence and torture in their home countries have particular needs that are often overlooked in the UK asylum system.

"Many women who have been raped or experienced other forms of gender based violence find it difficult to talk about these reasons for seeking asylum in interviews with Home Office staff. This is particularly the case in interviews with male staff or interpreters, or when their children are present."

In February, Home Secretary Teresa May announced an independent review of policies and procedures affecting the welfare of those held in immigration removal centres. It is expected to last six months and will be led by Stephen Shaw, the former prisons and probation ombudsman.

At the time ,May said she wanted to ensure that the "health and wellbeing of all detainees, some of whom may be vulnerable, is safeguarded at all times".