Home Affairs Committee
Background
I am a seventy one year old semi-retired Englishman. I have been involved in supporting asylum seekers for the past eight years.
I have been horrified by some of the things I have come across over this period and wish to take this opportunity to bring some of these to the attention of the committee.
Submission
The first time I experienced the workings of the UK immigration system was when an acquaintance was attacked in the company of police officers. Although she was seriously injured the police released the attacker (even though she had received instructions from the Home Office to leave the country). The victim was handed over to UKBA and was immediately transferred to Heathrow for removal as an overstayer.
Did UKBA have any influence over the police in arranging to loose all the evidence (including photographs) of her injuries? It was only the intervention of a doctor that stopped the removal.
My concern over this was that no one was notified and she was not allowed to return to her rented home to collect her meagre possessions. She was driven to the airport, bleeding heavily from a head wound. If the authorities had had their way she would have been deposited in a country where her life had been threatened without any possessions or money. She would not have had the opportunity to run and hide from the people who have threatened to kill her.
Surly there must be some way of reuniting people with their possessions at such a traumatic time.
After much difficulty I traced her possessions and delivered them to Yarl’s Wood IDC. On one occasion when she received removal instructions she asked to check these items. The officer in charge of the removal refused her request, saying that he would sign her name on the receipt, adding that as she would be abroad the following day she would not be in a position to object.
Because of the injury she received during the attack she needed hospital treatment. On a number of occasions she had appointments at hospital cancelled by non medical staff at Yarl’s Wood. Even when she saw a doctor the staff withheld medication from her.
When she complained about this treatment she was told that the staff could do anything they wanted to detainees, because they, the staff, would always be believed by UKBA.
One very concerning incident happened during a removal attempt. When she was put on an aircraft at Heathrow she was handed over to two Air Jamaica escorts. She was very wary of these people and said that she did not want to be returned. The two escorts immediately attacked her, and it was only the intervention of the flight crew that stopped the beating. Obviously the Home Office report stated that it was she who attacked the two escorts.
My concerns over this incident are as follows:
1. Why would UKBA employ Jamaican escorts?
2. Why did these two “escorts” run from the aircraft at Montego Bay, leaving their luggage behind them? (This was confirmed by Mr Bruce McLeary, Yarl’s Wood’s welfare officer)
3. Were these two individuals members of the gang that has threatened to kill her? Jamaican gangs are very powerful and are quite capable of arranging such a thing.
4. Were UKBA complicit in organising this to get rid of a problem?
During another removal attempt she was told by an escort that he had written instructions to break her hands and her feet to ensure that she got onto the aircraft. He said that as she had a history of violence he could use violence against her.
This “history of violence” is based on doctors at Heathrow refusing to allow her to fly on three occasions because her head wound was bleeding freely. UKBA recorded these incidents as her refusing to fly.
During her almost six months in immigration detention she was held in four detention centres—Oakington, Yarl’s Wood (x3), Dungavel and Colnbrook (x2). She was always moved without advanced notice. Was this just to make it difficult for her friends and legal team to visit her?
Over the past eight years I have become increasingly disillusioned with the workings of the UK government. The Home Office/UKBA seem to be a law unto themselves. Their actions have very little regard to the law of the land. They make the rules, and then break them with impunity.
John Catley
April 2013