Please join us for a unique event organised by the Health and Law Networks exploring the impact of immigration detention on the health of detainees as well as relevant policy and legislation. 

Panel:

Dr Juliet Cohen - Head of doctors for Freedom from torture. Independent forensic physician, specialising in medico-legal reports for victims of torture, trafficking, servitude and domestic violence principally in asylum seekers

Barrister Nicola Braganza - Garden Court Chambers, specialises in public law, with an emphasis on human rights, inequality and discrimination law and in immigration and asylum. 

Kris Haris - research and policy for Medical Justice

Co-chaired: Sonia Adesara and Deeba Syed

Every year around 30,000 women and men are detained under immigration powers. At any one time there are around 3,000 locked in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), over half of whom are never removed from the UK and are eventually released back into the community.

Around half of all detainees are asylum-seekers and the Home Office continues to detain particularly vulnerable persons such as pregnant women and survivors of trafficking, torture and rape. The detention of vulnerable persons continues despite clear evidence that detention has severe and detrimental impact on an individual's physical and mental health.

Shockingly, the UK is the only country in the EU not to impose a time limit on detention, meaning that some languish in detention for years. 

NGOs, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), the Bar Council, All-Party Parliamentary Groups and senior civil servants consistently call for a time limit on detention in addition to radical reforms to prevent vulnerable people from being detained. These calls are ignored by the Home Office. 

Free to attend, please RSVP

Venue: Room M, Portcullis House, Westminster