APPENDIX 4
Memorandum submitted by the Association
for Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
INTRODUCTION
1. I am the Deputy Chief Constable of Kent
Police, one of the primary areas of the country dealing with first
reception and identification of many Asylum Seekers. I also hold
the national Association for Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) portfolio
for Refugees and Asylum Seekers within the Race and Diversity
Committee.
2. This report has been prepared specifically
for consideration by the Committee.
SUBMISSION
3. I would like to submit evidence on three
main issues:
3.1 The impact of the removal process on
delivering policing.
3.2 The practical implications for detaining
failed asylum seekers.
3.3 The alignment of policies for the management
of Asylum Seekers during the assessment process with the subsequent
removal decision and implementation.
IMPACT ON
DELIVERING POLICING
4. Recent years have seen an increasing
focus on the priorities demanded of policing in this country,
the demands are varied and set against exacting targets.
5. We are committed to supporting the UK
Immigration Service (UKIS) in their work to achieve the targets
for the removal of failed asylum seekers. In undertaking this
support we acknowledge the shifting nature of the target over
the last two years and that it has rightly moved away from an
unrealistic, absolute number.
6. The aim of the police in assisting in
this process is twofold:
6.1 to minimise the adverse impact on local
communities that may arise when detaining individuals; and
6.2 to provide skills and expertise to the
arrest teams.
7. One of the key practical challenges for
a police force nationally is finding the skilled officers to undertake
this function. This is in the context of the current demands on
policing compounded by a competitive recruitment drive in parts
of the country. Although officers attached to the UKIS are fully
funded, their skills are sorely missed by their own forces. There
are currently some 70 officers attached full-time to the Immigration
Service and this number is likely to rise to the hundred mark
during 2003.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
FOR DETAINING
FAILED ASYLUM
SEEKERS
8. The whole process for assessing asylum
claims and implementing the decision is protracted and complex.
I am cogniscent that the key involvement of policing is at the
start and end of the process, being: the initial detection and
detention of illegal immigrants, before the claim is made; and
the arrest of failed asylum seekers prior to their removal from
the country. It is the latter involvement which is relevant to
this Committee.
9. Police involvement is not restricted
solely to the removal process. There is significant investment
in meeting their policing needs whilst resident in this country
both as victims and offenders.
10. The police are not party to the decision
as to whether an individual should be granted asylum or
removed from the country, but are involved in how and when
the individual is detained prior to removal. The two main
considerations in undertaking this decision is an assessment of
the individual set in the context of an assessment of the community.
11. These are risk assessments which will
consider the potential for disruption or harm, either personally
to the subjects of the operation or more generally to community
relations and public order.
12. Although the actual arrest is ideally
a short event, equally it is often the most public and high profile
part of the process. This means that police officers assisting
with this stage are exposed to public scrutiny and equally associated
with potentially the most contentious situations. This can lead
to conflict between the expectations on police officers to be
leading figures in forging community cohesion, but undertaking
a highly visible role in detaining failed asylum seekers.
13. Managing the potential for conflict
is a critical aspect of the community assessment and significant
energy is invested in consultation with community leaders to maintain
as much support as possible. The police officers attached to UKIS
are selected for their community communication skills.
14. One of the most challenging aspects
of effective detention of failed asylum seekers is identifying
and locating the right people subject of the decision making process.
The nature of the community is such that conventional means of
identifying and locating individuals does not readily transfer
to the tracing of failed asylum seekers. They prove to be more
transient in where they live and can change their identity.
15. A second aspect of effective removal
is timeliness, not only in finalising the decision making process,
but also locating the person soon after the decision has been
made.
ALIGNMENT OF
PROCESSES
16. Paragraph 11 already highlights the
conflicting issues for policing in trying to engage in a relationship
of trust and understanding with diverse communities to generate
community cohesion, but at the same time there is an expectation
that they will undertake a front line role in enforcing contentious
removals from vulnerable communities.
17. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry emphasised
the need for the police to take a lead role in developing community
contacts and also demands an overtly even handed approach in dealing
with all elements of the community.
18. Officers assisting with the detention
of failed asylum seekers are aware of the cultural sensitivities
in such operations and strive to maintain maximum dignity for
the arrested.
19. There is a tension in the process that
separates Asylum Seekers from the existing population. They have
restricted rights with respect to their freedom to find work and
move around the country due to reporting conditions. At the same
time they constitute a relatively vulnerable section of the community
who are victimised and deserve equal access to and protection
of the legal system. This is compounded by the sometimes extended
decision making process allowing them to become established within
their adopted communities. There have been high profile recent
removals which have clearly illustrated the unravelling of this
tension.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
20. The police are committed to supporting
the UKIS in achieving their goals for the management and removal
of failed asylum seekers. We are demonstrating this commitment
through a great number of different ways.
21. We have committed to a joint protocol
for delivering immediate expertise and staffing in the form of
up to 100 experienced officers. This is complemented by a longer
term plan to train Immigration Officers in arrest skills so that
they can become self sufficient in exercising their powers and
only relying on police assistance with the most violent and exceptional
incidents. The safeguards around community assessment will stay
with the police.
22. The police are assisting the Immigration
Service to adopt and develop the principles of the National Intelligence
Model to increase the effectiveness of locating and detaining
failed asylum seekers.
23. There are a variety of agencies involved
in the whole process which invariably generate a variety of different
information sources. Much more consistency could be brought to
the process and an increase to public safety, by establishing
standard working procedures for the exchange of information in
line with the provisions of the Data Protection Act.
February 2003
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