Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Dallas Court Reporting Centre, Salford criticised in recent report

NCADC | 26.03.2005 15:58

Dallas Court has been singled out for particular criticism in a recent report into conditions in short-term holding centres.

It is particularly disturbing that even after the YarlsWood fire, there are no approved fire or health and safety procedures in these "places of disappearance".

Points of Disappearance! - *'Short term holding centres'

Anne Ower's Chief Inspector of Prisons has published to day her findings of an inspection of four short-term holding centres. Global Solutions Limited (GSL) manages all four centres and all four are subject to criticism by the inspector. Dallas Court in Manchester came in for the most criticism; GSL were found wanting in 16 areas at
the centre.

For asylum seekers, reporting at 'short term holding centres' is normally the first and last link in the chain to detention and eventual deportation to potentially unsafe countries. Each time they go to report they never know if they will be one of the ones arrested, detained and removed - If they will ever see their friends and family here again.

The fear of being separated from their family, detained for an indefinite period and finally deported, is a constant source of stress. The management of the centres is in the hands of GSL. Each asylum seeker detained there brings profit to GSL.

Ms. Owers makes recommendations to the Government, the
Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and to the centre contractors GSL.

*'Short term holding Centres' are attached to reporting
centres, and hold those who have come to make claims, or report to immigration officers, or who have been picked up in enforcement operations.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The four short-term holding facilities are: Communications House, London, Lunar House, Croydon, Electric House, Croydon, Dallas Court, Manchester

Below selected extracts from the report (attached):

The first and most important finding of our inspections is that there is little external supervision or regular monitoring of these centres;

There were other deficiencies, common to all centres.

There was inadequate, or no, access to telephones, to inform
relatives and friends of the fact of detention.

No centres had child protection policies.

Training in self-harm and suicide prevention was inadequate;

No centre had approved fire or health and safety policies or procedures.

There was too little for detainees to do, or read.

No arrangements for detainees to arrange to recover or dispose of their property: aggravated by their inability to communicate by telephone.

There were particular problems in two centres. Dallas Court, at Manchester, is primarily used as a transit holding area for detainees being transferred between the north and south of the UK. The holding room was unfit for purpose: a cramped and shabby room was used to hold men, women and children.

Moreover, there was insufficient oversight of some detainees in transit. Some arrived in the evening, after custody staff had left. Immigration staff were not informed about transit detainees and on one occasion discovered a young woman, held for six hours, who had recently miscarried and was at risk of suicide. We recommend that detainees must always be placed in the direct care of a responsible staff member.

Lunar House is the main route through which families are detained at Oakington Reception Centre. In spite of this, it had inadequate child protection procedures, and staff were not alert to the need to ensure that agreed safeguards on the detention of children were implemented.

These reports underline the importance of independent inspection of these facilities. Though they hold people for only short periods, they do so at a time of considerable stress, when detainees are suddenly cut off from the rest of the world. In these unannounced inspections, we found that staff were alert to these anxieties. However, these reports point to the reforms in procedure and practice that are needed to ensure they are safe and decent environments.
Above all, they point to the need for regular oversight of these centres, both by senior managers and independent visitors.

NCADC

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Stop Deportation - Heathrow - Tuesday! — Rage
  2. heathrow action — eleanor
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech