‘History of abuse’: Home Office urged to reconsider plans to re-open detention centres

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Home secretary Yvette Cooper has been urged to reconsider plans to reopen two immigration detention centres as part of a push to achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018. Charity Detention Action, who support migrants inside immigration detention facilities, said the proposal was “a disappointing step away from a fairer and more humane immigration system”. They added: “Immigration detention centres are a hidden space where people are locked in small cells for up to 12 hours a day and frequently denied legal support and appropriate medical care.” They pointed to recent freedom of information statistics that showed that self-harm in detention centres had increased by 67 per cent in one year. In July, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor described the conditions at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow as “the worst conditions ever seen in immigration detention”.