Skip to content
© Copyright, Independent Monitoring Boards 2025.

Independent monitors warn of unresolved failings in immigration detention

Published:
Category:
Uncategorised
Tag:
North East Midlands YH STHF

An independent body tasked with monitoring places of immigration detention under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 criticises the Home Office for moving at a “glacial pace” to respond to its concerns about conditions in immigration detention.  

In its 2024-25 annual report published today (16 September 2025), the North East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside IMB (Independent Monitoring Board) highlights four important issues that the Home Office has failed to respond to:

  • In summer 2024, the Board uncovered a widespread breach of the medical confidentiality of people in detention with HIV with details of their HIV status being shared widely among non-medical staff despite medical advice that this should not happen as it would breach medical confidentiality. A serious concern alert about medical confidentiality was sent to the Home Office on 1 August 2024. No response has been forthcoming from the Home Office, despite the seriousness of the matter.
  • Despite statutory powers to ‘access all areas’, the chair of the Board was prevented from monitoring the arrival of a man with HIV into an immigration detention centre at Swinderby in Lincolnshire, resulting in a formal complaint about prevention of monitoring being submitted to the Home Office, again on 1 August 2024. Again, more than 12 months later, the Home Office has failed to respond to this complaint.
  • The ability of the Board to access detention records has been the subject of a long-running dispute between the Board and the Home Office. Concerns were first raised formally in January 2024, but it was not until eight months later that discussions were held. The Board has repeatedly asked the Home Office to state its legal grounds for restricting Board access to records, but no response has been forthcoming. In August 2025, instead of addressing the extant issue of access as set out in the STHF Rules, the Board was informed that a new paper process would be implemented. During this period, the Home Office has also transitioned from paper to electronic record-keeping but has not granted the IMB access to the electronic system, despite the IMB’s statutory powers to access records. As a result, the Board remains gravely concerned that this continued obstruction constitutes a deliberate and unjustifiable restriction on its ability to independently monitor, undermining both transparency and accountability, and preventing the Board from fulfilling its statutory duties.
  • The Board has had longstanding concerns about the practice of confiscating medicine from people placed in non-residential short-term holding facilities (STHFs), and preventing them from taking prescribed medicines until they are either moved to a residential facility, or released. This concern was first raised by the Board three years ago but remains unresolved by the Home Office at facilities in the Board’s region – at locations in Leeds, Sheffield, Leeds Bradford Airport, the Humber ports and Teesport.

Chair of North East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside IMB, commented:

“The Board is concerned that barriers are being put in the way of effective independent monitoring and that important concerns are being ignored by the Home Office. We had hoped that a new team of Home Office ministers appointed last year would take a fresh approach but we’ve yet to see any evidence that this is the case.”