REMOVAL
71. Once the barriers to removal described above
have been overcome, the Immigration Service is likely to enforce
removal by visiting the individual or family at their home, if
necessary arresting them, and conducting them, with the help of
the private security firm Wackenhut, either to detention or straight
to the airport for departure. Various organisations and individuals
submitted evidence to us expressing disquiet about the way in
which the Immigration Service enforces removal from homes.
72. One, frequently expressed, complaint was that
insufficient time is given to people to collect their belongings
and settle their affairs before removal from the country. The
Immigration Law Practitioners' Association told us that:
the extreme hastiness of effecting removal by the
Immigration Service in order to effect removals is inhuman and
unnecessary. [The Association] is aware of numerous cases where
individuals are fully complying with conditions of temporary admission
and are suddenly arrested at reporting centres, at places of work
or at home without time to prepare for removal.[83]
73. The Immigration Advisory Service described "frequent
reports of cases where persons reporting to the Home Office are
taken into detention without any prior warning and removed the
following day without them being able to collect their personal
possessions or make arrangements regarding their accommodation,
engagements, etc".[84]
Mr Michael Payne, Head of Government Services Division at Wackenhut,
told us of an individual:
who had been given notice of removal on the Saturday
morning for a Sunday evening flight and he had been living in
the country for eight years [ ... ] he had his own house with
a mortgage and family, etc to sort out.[85]
74. The Minister told us that, in the case of families,
a pastoral visit is usually paid by the Immigration Service before
the removal, to explain and run through the procedures. She went
on to say that in some cases, however, "some of those visits
do take place unannounced, and they can take place in the early
hours of the morning" but that "those instances are
kept to a minimum".[86]
75. The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees
recommended the creation of a welfare officer with responsibility
to ensure that removal is not effected before personal and financial
affairs have been settled. A recent report of HM Chief Inspector
of Prisons into conditions at five immigration detention facilities
(Tinsley House, Haslar, Campsfield House and Lindholme Removal
Centres, and Oakington Reception Centre) also recommended that
a post of welfare officer be created within Removal Centres to
assist with problems and advise and support detainees on release,
transfer and removal.[87]
We agree and recommend that a welfare officer ought to be attached
to each Removal Centre with a remit that includes ensuring that
those detained have had an opportunity to alert friends, family
and legal representatives to their impending removal. We also
recommend that Home Office guidelines should make clear that failed
asylum seekers in detention should not be removed without having
been given a reasonable opportunity to wind up their affairs.
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