Stop jailing your asylum seekers, UN tells Britain
* Let them go says refugee commissioner
* 'Shameful' breach of human rights
By Nicholas Pyke and Jo Dillon
12 August 2001
Independent

The United Nations yesterday condemned Britain's "shameful" policy of jailing asylum
seekers and treating them like criminals while they wait to have their cases heard.

Responding to the revelation in last week's Independent on Sunday that more than 1,000
refugees are detained in prison alongside convicts, the UN's High Commissioner for
Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, demanded an immediate end to the policy.

A spokeswoman for Mr Lubbers in Geneva said yesterday that Britain's behaviour is in clear
breach of international guidelines. "Asylum seekers should not be detained," said the
spokeswoman. "Many of them have survived unspeakable trauma, and the experience of jail
may increase their suffering."

Britain is the only country in Europe to put innocent asylum seekers in jail. They are subject
to prison discipline, with many confined to cells for 20 hours a day or more.

"We don't believe they should be held in jail at all, let alone treated as criminals," said
Christian Mahr, acting head of the UNHCR in Britain. "It's shameful and the Government
should end the practice immediately. We find it unacceptable. We have already made
representations to the Home Office, and will continue to press the issue." Amnesty
International backed the demand.

Baroness Nicholson, MEP, vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee for Foreign
Affairs and Human Rights, added to the criticism, saying: "I find it abhorrent that, purely by
virtue of having arrived in the UK, they are put in prison. It must be a breach of their most
fundamental human rights."

Later this month a report by the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture will argue
that torture survivors are detained despite their horrific ordeals – in breach of government
guidelines. "None of this evidence seems to make any difference," the report will say.

The Home Office yesterday sought to deflect some of the criticism, saying: "It is plain that
the Home Secretary does not see it as desirable to hold asylum seekers in prison."
Nevertheless, a spokesman added, fears that they might abscond and the fact that the 770
places in detention centres are full left no alternative.

The plight of asylum seekers moved rapidly up the political agenda last week when a Kurd
was stabbed to death on the Sighthill Estate in Glasgow, and another man was slashed in
Hull.

These coincided with claims that racist prison officers are subjecting jailed refugees to
violence and racist abuse. Detainees in Rochester, Cardiff and Liverpool prisons have gone
on hunger strike in protest.

In letters to this newspaper, asylum seekers claim they have suffered racism, brutality,
arbitrary punishment and the denial of medical treatment. They allege that mail has been
destroyed.

"Mihai", a care assistant, spent ten months in Rochester. Speaking from Cibu in Romania
last week he said prison officers ignored his kidney illness, leaving him in severe pain. He
alleges that a member of the prison staff told him: "People like you are not wanted here."

Rochester prison denied the problems with medication and mail. A spokeswoman for the
Prison Service said: "If any allegations come to light, they will be seriously investigated.
There's no place in the Prison Service for racism."

Responding to the murder in Glasgow, the Home Secretary ordered a rapid review of asylum
seeker dispersal policy to look at the way refugees are being treated on the ground. It is due
to report in the autumn. 
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