A report published today by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) has found that, more than three years since its introduction, the Home Office’s ‘Adults at Risk’ policy is still not operating effectively to keep vulnerable people out of immigration detention.

The inspection identifies ‘significant weaknesses’ in Home Office processes for identifying vulnerable people before they are locked up in detention. It also points to a ‘host of problems’ with mechanisms that are supposed to act as safeguards for vulnerable people once they have been detained.

The findings of the ICIBI’s report are even more troubling in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Detention centres put vulnerable people with underlying physical health conditions at particular risk of infection, as living conditions make it impossible to self-isolate effectively and uphold social distancing. There have already been at least two cases of Covid-19 in detention centres.

Women for Refugee Women is also in touch with survivors of trafficking, torture and rape who have been locked up in Yarl’s Wood detention centre for weeks, and in some cases months. Being detained while a global pandemic is ongoing is causing these vulnerable women immense distress. There are also serious questions about the legality of their detention. Immigration detention is only supposed to be used for purposes of removal, but as borders around the world have closed there is currently no possibility of removing these women from the UK.

Natasha Walter, director of Women for Refugee Women, says:

“Even in normal circumstances, as the ICIBI report makes clear, safeguards that are meant to protect vulnerable people from being held in immigration detention are simply not working. Immigration detention is both traumatic and unnecessary, and potentially unlawful at this time when removal is not possible. The Home Office is putting vulnerable women at risk by continuing to detain them. We call  on the Home Office to shut down detention centres now, and to provide everyone currently in detention with accommodation in the community so that they can self-isolate.”