Indefinite Detention and the Rule of Law

a post by Catherine Jaquiss for the UK Human Rights blog

On 1 December 2017 an event in Temple Church with the Bar Council in collaboration with Refugee Tales, an outreach project whose aim is to see the end of indefinite immigration detention, saw an announcement of new recommendations for reform of the system of immigration detention.

This followed from the publication on 30 November 2017 of ‘Injustice in Immigration Detention, Perspectives from Legal Professionals’, an independent report by Dr Anna Lindley of SOAS.

Read the report (PDF 61pp)

The Bar Council, led by Andrew Langdon QC, is making a series of recommendations in light of the report, as follows:

1. A 28-day time limit for administrative detention;
2. Automatic judicial oversight of the arrangements for holding people in administrative detention;
3. Adequate legal aid for advice and representation for those held in immigration detention to challenge the loss of their liberty;
4. A ban on the use of prisons for the purposes of administrative detention;
5. Special care for vulnerable people and victims of torture held in administrative detention; and
6. Review and clarification of the criteria for administrative detention. The relevant policy and rules need to be accessible and intelligible so that all those who are affected by the exercise of powers to detain understand the reasons for the exercise of those powers and can challenge decisions where appropriate.

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