E/CN.4/1999/63/Add.3
page 2
Introduction
1.
In its resolution 1997/50, the Commission on Human Rights requested the
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to devote all necessary attention to
reports concerning the situation of immigrants and asylum seekers who are
allegedly being held in prolonged administrative detention without the
possibility of administrative or judicial remedy.
2.
The Working Group was invited by the Government of the United Kingdom to
visit the country. The Working Group, represented by Mr. Kapil Sibal
(Chairman) and Mr. Petr Uhl (member), along with Mr. Markus Schmidt
(Secretary), visited the United Kingdom from 21 to 25 September 1998.
3.
In the United Kingdom, the Group visited both detention centres and
prisons. Among the detention centres the Group visited were Campsfield House
Detention Centre, Oxfordshire; Harmondsworth Detention Centre, Middlesex;
Haslar Holding Centre (HOHC) in Hampshire and Tinsley House (near Gatwick
airport). The prisons visited were the prison at Rochester, Kent, and
Wormwood Scrubs in London. The Group visited Heathrow airport, met with the
Assistant Director, Mr. Alan Craig, and familiarized itself with the primary
and secondary control areas, the asylum casework section, the holding area and
other operations at Heathrow.
4.
In the course of its visit the Group met with Mr. Mike O’Brien
(Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for immigration
and asylum issues) and Home Office officials. The Group also met with
Mr. Colin Harbing (Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate),
Mr. Francis Masserick (head of the Detention Operations Management Unit),
Ms. Kathy Casey (Asylum Directorate), Mr. Bob Daw (Directorate of Dispersal
Prisons - Prison Service), governors and senior managers of prisons and those
in charge of detention centres, officers of the Immigration Service, members
of visiting committees, assistant directors and inspectors in the Immigration
Service and several other officials. The Working Group also consulted with
Immigration Appellate Authorities at Hatton Cross, who are vested with the
jurisdiction to grant bail to asylum seekers and hear substantive appeals.
The Working Group also met with representatives of the European Council for
Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and several non-governmental organizations involved
in refugee work, such as the British Refugee Council, the Refugee Legal Centre
and Amnesty International.
5.
At the outset, the Working Group would like to express its appreciation
for the complete cooperation extended to it and the openness with which the
entire visit was handled by the United Kingdom authorities. The Working Group
was allowed free access to all the facilities it visited. There was a free
and frank exchange of views with the officials who assisted the Group during
the visit. The Group was allowed free access to the detainees with whom it
conducted private interviews, in order to understand better the functioning of
the legal regime applicable to immigrants and asylum seekers. Whenever the
Group requested statistical data and information which it considered relevant
for better comprehension of the legal regime, government officials provided
the delegation with the necessary data.