Freedom from Torture responds to the Joint Committee on Human Rights report on Immigration Detention

We welcome this important report which validates our long-standing concerns about immigration detention and ill-treatment of vulnerable individuals including torture survivors.

The report exposes the terrible human cost of the government’s failing Adults at Risk policy. At Freedom from Torture, we consistently see the catastrophic impact of incarceration on those who are already living with trauma from past abuse.

The report rightly highlights systematic abuse of immigration detention by the Home Office and we welcome the call for this power to be stripped away from it and handed to independent judges.

The report rightly highlights systematic abuse of immigration detention by the Home Office and we welcome the call for this power to be stripped away from it and handed to independent judges.

It is appalling that people are typically not released even when identified as at risk – an experience that many torture survivors we help can attest to. So if the government is serious about its professed commitment to keep torture survivors and other vulnerable people out of detention, the Adults at Risk policy also needs to be overhauled immediately.

Notes to editors:

  • For media enquiries and interviews with clients, please contact Aalia Khan: [email protected] / 0207 697 7837
  • You can find the report published here on Thursday 7 February, 00:01 GMT
  • Freedom from Torture is the only organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the treatment and rehabilitation of survivors of torture.