Independent monitor calls for an end to detaining families with children in immigration detention unit at Gatwick

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for the family detention unit pre-departure accommodation (Family PDA) at Gatwick has recommended the closure of the unit and an end to the detention of children there. The Family PDA forms part of the Gatwick immigration removal site, which includes Brook House immigration removal centre. Since 2017, 48 families have been held at the Family PDA as part of the Home Office removals process, with only six of those removals going ahead.

In its 2023 annual report published today (11 October 2024), the IMB is particularly concerned about:

• The fairness and humanity of detaining families with children.
• The risk that, in some cases, the use of the Family PDA may prolong or add to trauma already experienced, particularly for children.
• Children witnessing or overhearing their parents’ considerable distress at what is happening to them, despite staff efforts to shield them.
• Children sometimes interpreting for their parents with staff, despite availability of professional interpreters.

In one particularly distressing case in 2023, a mother and her three children aged five, four and two, were detained in the Family PDA for nearly a week after a failed removal. By the time of the attempt to remove the family from the Family PDA, the mother had tested positive for pregnancy. Before the removal was cancelled, she sat naked in a toilet cubicle for approximately four hours refusing to engage with escorts. Serco staff who were with her reported that she was very stressed and engaged less over time. They also remarked on a significant decline in her demeanour.

The Board feels that the Home Office decision-making process resulted in callous treatment and unnecessary suffering for the mother, with the impact on her three young children unknown.

However, the Board is pleased to report that:

• Physical conditions in the Family PDA were good in 2023; it was spacious and much effort was made to make it appear welcoming and child friendly.
• Serco and the healthcare provider Practice Plus Group did a difficult job with clear empathy and care for the families detained.

The Chair of the IMB for the Family PDA, Neil Beer, said:

“There is a fundamental question of whether it is decent or humane to detain families with children. From our monitoring, the suffering and distress of parents is evident, and we have concerns about the impact of detention on the mental and emotional well-being of all members of families held in the Family PDA, in particular around the impact on children. We have seen children taking on responsibilities beyond their years. The Board’s view is that no child should be put at risk by the kind of experience endured by those detained in the Family PDA in 2023.”