IMMIGRATION DETENTION

Every year thousands of people enter immigration detention in the UK and there is no time limit for how long they can be detained.  At ITN Solicitors, we assist clients who are currently, or who have previously been, detained under immigration powers, in either immigration detention centres or prisons up and down the country. 

Immigration detention can have a lasting impact on individuals and families separated by the state.  It also plays a significant part in the state’s ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants.  Often those detained include children, victims of torture, human trafficking or modern slavery, and individuals suffering from serious mental and/or physical health conditions, which cannot be managed adequately in detention. We strongly argue that all of these individuals are unsuitable for detention, and we can assist clients in making an application to be released or to bring civil claims for compensation after they have been released.

In addition, we are able to assist individuals who have been assaulted and/or discriminated against by detention centre/prison/escort staff, affected by poor conditions in the detention centre, failed by the state in recognising them as victims of trafficking and modern slavery, and individuals who have been victims of maladministration by the Home Office as part of the ‘hostile environment’.

Legal Aid may be available in all of the above cases, subject to financial eligibility.

Our lawyers have been involved in a number of successful cases, including:

• Successfully applied for interim relief in judicial review proceedings concerning a negative reasonable grounds decision in respect of a victim of human trafficking and torture.  This action prevented the person’s deportation on the day of removal, and led to his release from immigration detention. 
• Settling a civil claim against the Home Office, for false imprisonment, on behalf of an EU national who was unlawfully detained under immigration powers, as part of the police and Home Office coordinated ‘Operation Nexus’, whilst exercising his treaty rights to work in the UK.
• Prevented the deportation of a migrant while he was waiting at Heathrow.  This led to his eventual release and then successful civil claim for false imprisonment, assault and psychiatric injury.  He later successfully applied for asylum.
• Secured the release of a Darfuri migrant from detention, after he had been wrongly allocated to the ‘Fast Track’ removal process.  He successfully claimed for false imprisonment, and later was granted Asylum.  He is now a British citizen.