A new paper by London Detainee Support Group gives a disturbing glimpse of the widespread and growing use of indefinite immigration detention across the UK. Charities have seen an almost tripling of the numbers of detainees they are supporting who are detained for extreme periods.


The survey found that five member organisations of Asylum Rights Campaign Detention sub-group were supporting 50 people detained for more than 2 years, an increase of 138% in 6 months. 138 detainees surveyed had been held for over a year. 60% of those detained for more than a year were from only five countries, to all of which deportations are often impossible.

The paper highlights the gross methodological flaw in the official UKBA statistics, which exclude detention in prisons and consequently understate the true scale of indefinite detention. As support charities are in touch with only a small proportion of detainees, it is likely that many more people are being detained for periods of years than have been recorded.

The paper was produced in collaboration with Dover Detainee Visitor Group, Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, Haslar Visitors Group and Liverpool Prisons Visiting Group.

The paper can be found on our campaign website at http://www.detainedlives.org/wp-content/uploads/ldsgreport-0609.pdf .