Independent monitors warn that people in immigration detention are being put at avoidable risk

The North East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside STHF Independent Monitoring Board’s (IMB) annual report for 2025-26 (published 11 November 2026) raises serious concerns about the confiscation of prescribed medication, the management of a serious self-harm incident, the use of force, safeguarding, searches that did not always preserve detained people’s dignity, and increasing restrictions on independent monitoring.

The report examines the treatment of people held at Swinderby, Leeds Bradford Airport, reporting centres in Leeds and Sheffield, and ports across the Humber and Tees areas. Swinderby and the reporting centres are operated by Mitie Care & Custody. The report draws on evidence gathered during 107 monitoring visits carried out by the Board during the year.

The Board highlights concerns over:

• Prescribed medication, including cardiac and circulatory medication and an inhaler being confiscated without clinical oversight or documented risk assessments. In one case, an individual with serious medical conditions was released and later re-detained solely to facilitate access to prescribed medication. The Board considers the routine confiscation of prescribed medication dangerous, inhumane and fundamentally unfair.

• A detained person remaining at acute risk of serious self-harm for around six hours. The person obtained a weapon and repeatedly threatened suicide, holding it to his neck on several occasions, before police were called. Force was subsequently used, and the weapon was removed. The Board has not been provided with evidence of learning, review or improvement arising from the incident.  

• A blanket handcuffing policy was issued by a detention contractor without Home Office approval, alongside concerns that force was being used routinely without sufficiently individualised assessment. The Home Office advised it had challenged the policy, but the Board has not seen evidence that the underlying practice has materially changed. In a separate case, a waist restraint belt was applied to a fully compliant individual during a removal operation; following concerns raised by the Board, the Home Office concluded that the restraint had been unnecessary, unjustified and disproportionate. 

• An unaccompanied child being detained without the independent adult support identified as necessary. Border Force initially maintained, including following challenge by the Board, that the child had not been detained, before confirming during the report’s fact-check process that detention had occurred. The Board’s safeguarding concerns remain unresolved.  

• Increasing restrictions on independent scrutiny, particularly at facilities managed by Border Force. These have included refusals to provide detention documentation, use of force records and relevant policies. The Board considers that these restrictions materially hinder its ability independently to verify information and determine whether detained people are being treated safely, fairly and humanely.

• Professional standards, dignity and culture. The Board identified inappropriate and offensive material displayed in a manager’s office and visible to detained people, including a sign stating: ‘‘Handle stressful situations like a dog. If you can’t eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away.’’ The sign was removed after the Board raised concerns. The Board also repeatedly observed staff wearing national flags affixed to their uniforms and identified occasions where searches were conducted with doors open or without sufficient privacy. The Board concluded that such practices risk undermining dignity, confidence in professionalism and the perception of neutrality in immigration detention. 

The Board is calling on the Minister to end the routine confiscation of prescribed medication, ensure monitors have access to all records necessary to fulfil their statutory duties, strengthen accountability for responding to serious concerns, and review the use of force where handcuffing or restraint has become a default practice.       

More positively, however, the Board reports that:

• There were many instances of staff being observed treating detained people with care and respect.
• Healthcare provision at Swinderby was appropriate.

Zain Raheem, Co-Chair of North East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside STHF IMB, commented:

“Taking cardiac medication, an inhaler or other prescribed treatment from someone without clinical advice or an individualised risk assessment creates a foreseeable and unnecessary risk of harm to health.

We were also deeply concerned by an incident in which a detained person remained at acute risk of significant self-harm for around six hours, and by evidence of blanket or routine approaches to use of force including handcuffing and restraint.

Our ability to examine these issues independently is being increasingly restricted. Concerns raised in our previous report have not been resolved and the position has deteriorated. Refusing access to detention records, use of force documentation and relevant policies materially hinders effective independent monitoring. We recognise the many staff who treat detained people with care and respect. However, good individual practice cannot compensate for systemic failings. The Home Office must act urgently, transparently and substantively on the recommendations in this report”