Dungavel

Last updated

Dungavel, 1987 HM Prison Dungavel - geograph.org.uk - 1218943.jpg
Dungavel, 1987

Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, near the town of Strathaven that is also known as Dungavel Castle or Dungavel House. It is operated by Mitie Care and Custody, under contract with the law-enforcement command Immigration Enforcement for its detention of immigrants for the Home Office. It is the only such facility in Scotland.

Contents

The announced closure of Dungavel in September 2016 [1] was rescinded in February 2017, with a planned replacement cancelled and Dungavel to remain open. [2]

History

Originally a 19th-century hunting lodge and summer retreat of the Dukes of Hamilton linked to their then main house at Hamilton Palace, it was the home of the 13th Duke from 1919 following the demolition of the palace due to subsidence, arising from mining in the area.

Dungavel was the planned destination for Rudolf Hess's doomed 1941 peace mission, to seek the intercession of the 14th Duke of Hamilton with Churchill to try to end the war between Britain and Germany. Dungavel was sold on to the National Coal Board in 1947. It was then acquired by the government and turned into an open prison.

In 1979 Agnes Curran became the governor of Dungavel prison. She was the first female prison governor of a prison for men in Britain. Curran was surprised to be appointed and she had to deal with the attitudes taken by male staff and prisoners to a woman governor. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1984. [3] [4]

In 2001 its role changed and it is used for holding asylum seekers whose applications have been refused prior to their removal. It however, remains the final resting place for the thirteenth Duke of Hamilton, a naval officer whose grave lies within the close policies of the castle, once adorned with a ship's anchor.

Current use

Dungavel, 2006 Dungavel House IRC - geograph.org.uk - 100398.jpg
Dungavel, 2006

Dungavel opened as an immigrant detention centre in 2001. [5] Under the management of operator Mitie Care and Custody the facility was expanded in 2013 to 249 detainees, men and women, in "four main residential units". [6] This was GEO Group's only prison in the United Kingdom before being taken over by Mitie Care and Custody in 2022.

Dungavel has been the scene of several protests on the basis that babies and young children have been held there prior to deportation, in some cases for over a year. The Kurdish Ay family, consisting of Yurdugal Ay and her four children aged 7 to 14, were held in Dungavel in a single room for 13 months before eventually gaining asylum in Germany. In 2003 lawyer Aamer Anwar led a campaign over the detention of the Ays. Over the years Aamer Anwar has continued to call for Dungavel to be shut down, describing it as inhumane and barbaric as well as a 'scar on the face of Scotland.' In January 2012 the Home Office agreed to pay the four Ay children a 6-figure settlement, following a civil action against the UK government for the ordeal of their time in detention. [7]

In 2004 the Children's Commissioner for Scotland described the facility as "morally upsetting" and threatened to report the UK and Scottish Governments to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. However, former Home Secretary David Blunkett said that "Detention, while regrettable, is an essential part of effective immigration control - to affect removal, establish identity or prevent absconding. Where it is necessary to detain individuals with children, we believe it is better that the children remain with their parents rather than split up the family". [8]

Entrance sign of the Dungavel Detention Centre Dungavel.JPG
Entrance sign of the Dungavel Detention Centre

The Scottish Government has no direct authority over Dungavel, as asylum and immigration are matters reserved to the UK Parliament. But Scottish officials continued to press for changes at the prison using their authority over child welfare matters. After the 2010 UK General election, the UK Coalition government announced it would end the detention of children under 18 at Dungavel. First reporting suggested that this change would be "taking the problem off Scottish soil", but that the children would only be transferred to Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, [9] privately operated by Serco, with its own history of controversy, detentions of longer than a year, and failures in its treatment of children. [10]

Public criticism

Protests against Dungavel Detention Centre. Dungavel3.JPG
Protests against Dungavel Detention Centre.

Dungavel has faced criticism from organisations like Detention Action and the Scottish Refugee Council, due to breaches of human rights. [11] [12] In 2015, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) found that vulnerable individuals were being detained in contravention of rules designed to protect vulnerable people from detention. [13] [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serco</span> British company

Serco Group plc is a British multinational defence, health, space, justice, migration, customer services, and transport company. It is headquartered in Hook, Hart, England. The company operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and Hong Kong, and North America. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nauru Regional Processing Centre</span> Offshore Australian immigration detention facility

The Nauru Regional Processing Centre is an offshore Australian immigration detention facility in use from 2001 to 2008, from 2012 to 2019, and from September 2021. It is located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru and run by the Government of Nauru. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.

Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of departure. Mandatory detention refers to the practice of compulsorily detaining or imprisoning people who are considered to be illegal immigrants or unauthorized arrivals into a country. Some countries have set a maximum period of detention, while others permit indefinite detention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police raid</span> Tactic used by police

A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, endanger the public or officers if approached through other means, or simply be elsewhere at another time. Various tactics are used by law enforcement in raids that often vary based on available equipment, situational factors, laws, and police powers.

Independent monitoring boards (IMB) are statutory bodies established by the Prison Act 1952 to monitor the welfare of prisoners in the UK to ensure that they are properly cared for within Prison and Immigration Centre rules, whilst in custody and detention. Their responsibilities were extended to Immigration Removal Centres by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 following an inspection in 1989 of what was then Harmondsworth Detention Centre.

Unity is a volunteer-run organisation which provides support for asylum seekers and sans papiers in Glasgow, Scotland. The Unity Centre has been open since 2006 and is situated in Ibrox, near to the Home Office Immigration Centre.

The Glasgow Girls is a group of seven young women in Glasgow, Scotland, who highlighted the poor treatment of asylum seekers whose rights of appeal had been exhausted. In 2005, the group campaigned against dawn raids, raised public awareness, and found support in the Scottish Parliament. Their story has been told in a musical and 2 documentaries.

The Ay family are Kurdish asylum seekers who became the centre of a controversy in 2003 surrounding the policy of locking up children in high security immigration detention centres in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre</span> Detention centre for foreign nationals prior to their deportation from the United Kingdom

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre is a detention centre for foreign nationals prior to their deportation from the United Kingdom, one of 10 such centres currently in the UK. It is located near Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire, England, and is operated by Serco, which describes the place as "a fully contained residential centre housing adult women and adult family groups awaiting immigration clearance." Its population is, and has been, overwhelmingly female.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GEO Group</span> American institutional facilities company

The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's facilities include illegal immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It also operates government-owned facilities pursuant to management contracts. As of December 31, 2021, the company managed and/or owned 86,000 beds at 106 facilities. In 2019, agencies of the federal government of the United States generated 53% of the company's revenues. Up until 2021 the company was designated as a real estate investment trust, at which time the board of directors elected to reclassify as a C corporation under the stated goal of reducing the company's debt.

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in Harmondsworth, London Borough of Hillingdon, near London Heathrow Airport run by Mitie. Harmondsworth, which neighbours the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre. It holds around 620 men.

The Movement for Justice was set up in 1995 by people around the Kingsway College Student Union in the London Borough of Camden to tackle racism in institutional and established forms. The group confronted organised fascism as well as death in custody and wider racism to black people as well as travellers, refugees and asylum seekers. It is also the sister group to the American organization The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Morton Hall</span> Category C mens prison in Lincolnshire, England

HM Prison Morton Hall is a Category C men's prison, located in the village of Morton Hall in Lincolnshire, England. The centre is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was previously a women's prison and from 2011 to 2021 it was an Immigration Removal Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campsfield House</span> United Kingdom immigration detention centre

Campsfield House was an immigration detention centre located in Kidlington near Oxford, England, operated by private prison firm Group 4 under contract with the British government. For 25 years, it was the site of a regular monthly protest from human rights campaigners and saw a number of internal protests, hunger strikes and two suicides. However, it was highly praised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons at the last full inspection in 2014. Campsfield closed in 2018.

Robina Qureshi is a Scottish human rights campaigner. She is a critic of the asylum policies of the United Kingdom, and has campaigned to stop inhumane treatment and close detention centres for asylum seekers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration detention in the United States</span>

The United States government holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention under the control of Customs and Border Protection(CBP; principally the Border Patrol) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Immigration detention in the United Kingdom is the practice of detaining foreign nationals for the purpose of immigration control. Unlike some other countries, UK provisions to detain are not outlined in a codified constitution. Instead, immigration enforcement holds individuals under Powers granted in the Immigration Act 1971 and by the Home Office Detention Centre Rules (2001). The expressed purpose of immigration detention is to "effect removal; initially to establish a person's identity or basis of claim; or [implement] where there is reason to believe that the person will fail to comply with any conditions attached to a grant of immigration bail." Detention can only lawfully be exercised under these provisions where there is a "realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable period".

Agnes Curran MBE was a British prison governor. She was the first female prison governor of a UK prison for men

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women for Refugee Women</span>

Women for Refugee Women is a charity challenging the injustices experienced by women who seek asylum in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trump administration family separation policy</span> Policy intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation

The United States family separation policy under the Trump administration was presented to the public as a "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation. In some cases, families following the legal procedure to apply for asylum at official border crossings were also separated. It was officially adopted across the entire US–Mexico border from April 2018 until June 2018. Under the policy, federal authorities separated children and infants from parents or guardians with whom they had entered the US. The adults were prosecuted and held in federal jails or deported, and the children were placed under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services. More than 5,500 children, including infants, were removed and up to 2,000 still have not been reunited as of March 2024.

References

  1. ↑ "Dungavel immigration detention centre to close". BBC News. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "Dungavel House immigration removal centre to stay open". BBC News. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Anne Worrall, ‘Curran, Agnes (1920–2005)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2009; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 23 July 2017
  4. ↑ "Agnes Curran First woman governor of an all-male British prison". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  5. ↑ "Dungavel immigration detention centre to close". BBC News. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  6. ↑ "Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre". GEO Group. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Child asylum seekers win compensation for 13-month detention". The Guardian. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Dungavel Detention Centre 12 July 2004". House of Commons Debate archive. 12 July 2004. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  9. ↑ "Child detention to end at Dungavel removal centre". BBC News. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  10. ↑ McVeigh, Karen (16 February 2010). "Yarl's Wood children face 'extreme distress', report reveals". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  11. ↑ "MSP slams "shameful" Dungavel detention centre following new revelations". 8 April 2020.
  12. ↑ "#Unlocked comes to Scotland's Dungavel". 3 December 2014.
  13. ↑ O'Hare, Liam. "Prisons inspector criticises Dungavel Detention Centre for treatment of rape and torture victims". commonspace.scot. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  14. ↑ Leask, David. "Watchdog: People are held for "unreasonably long" periods at Dungavel". www.heraldscotland.com. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

55°36′32″N4°07′55″W / 55.609°N 4.132°W / 55.609; -4.132

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.