Held migrants deprived of medicines, report says

Despite other issues, inspectors said people in detention were treated well by Border Force

The health of detained migrants is put at risk because their medication is confiscated at ports and airports, a report has said.

An Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) inspected facilities at Bristol and Cardiff airports and at Newhaven, Poole and Portsmouth ports, where migrants can be detained for up to 24 hours.

Arrangements for assessing and treating health conditions at all sites was inadequate, the South and West Short-Term Holding Facilities IMB said.

But Border Force, which runs the units and has refused to comment, was found by inspectors to be treating those in detention well.

In their annual report, IMB inspectors said: "The current arrangements, where possession of medication is not allowed... may present risks to health."

On one occasion, a new arrival at Bristol Airport was prevented from taking post-operation antibiotics, they said.

Portsmouth's holding unit had no hot water or soap, while the one in Poole had no heating at all, inspectors said.

At Bristol, there were no plans to expand the detention unit in line with the approved increase in the number of airport passengers, they added.

The IMB said Border Force (BF) had sometimes hampered the work of inspectors.

It said: "BF have consistently failed to give the IMB access to detention records, primarily at Poole and Cardiff.

"In addition, during the year the IMB access to the offices at Poole was withdrawn."

The board's chair, Di Askwith, said: "People in immigration detention can be anxious and vulnerable and may have had a challenging journey to reach that point.

"Our observations indicated that people in detention were being treated well by Border Force. However, we would like to see more consistent record keeping and for the IMB to be able to access all records."

Bristol was the busiest site in the year to the end of January, with 356 detentions for longer than two hours.

There were 63 detentions in Portsmouth, 12 in Cardiff, eight in Newhaven and two in Poole.

The number was lower than the previous year when 582 people were detained, according to Border Force.