Home Secretary to launch review into welfare of immigration detainees

Theresa May is to launch an independent review into the welfare of immigration detainees, The Guardian reports. The review will be led by former prisons and probation ombudsman Stephen Shaw, and should take around six months to complete. It will assess whether 'improvements can be made to safeguard the health and well-being of detainees held in immigration removal centres and short-term holding facilities, as well as those being escorted in the UK'. 

Last month our Projects Assistant Abi Amey went to the launch of a new report by Women for Refugee Women on the experiences of women in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Their study found that immigration detention was a profoundly distressing environment in which detainees are routinely humilated and dehumanised. The report argues for an end to the detention of asylum seekers rather than trying to improve conditions.