Yarl's Wood IRC

Yarl's Wood IRC is an immigration removal centre, operated by a private contractor, Serco Limited, on behalf of the Home Office under the Detention Centre Rules 2001. It is located outside the village of Clapham in Bedfordshire.

List of centre managers and assistants

• David Watson was centre manager of Yarl's Wood IRC for Group 4 from January 2001 to January 2003 during which time a major fire occurred.
• Joanne Henney was deputy centre manager for G4S from June 2003 to June 2006.
• James Wilkinson was contract director for Serco at Yarl's Wood IRC over 18 months from December 2010 to May 2012.
• Lisa Hooper was assistant director for Serco from October 2008 to June 2015 (ongoing)
• Victoria Murray was "Assistant Director (Business Assurance)" for Serco at Yarl's Wood IRC during 2010 and then deputy contract director there in 2011.

Senior staff

• Ian Scrupps was a business development manager for Serco from 2007 to July 2008, during which time he helped Serco transition onto their new contract for Yarl's Wood IRC.
• David Tanner is a Non Executive Director of the Yarl's Wood Immigration Centre Contract Board for Serco since 2013.

History

When Yarl's Wood was opened in 2001, it initially accommodated 900 people in two blocks, making it the largest immigration prison in Europe at the time. The management of the centre was contracted to Global Solutions Ltd. (GSL), which was then owned by Group 4 Amey Immigration Ltd, owned by Amey Assets Services Ltd and Group 4 Falck.

In February 2002, the prison was burnt down following a protest by detainees triggered by a 55-year-old woman being physically restrained by staff. When the fire started, the centre manager ordered all staff to exit the building, locking the detainees inside the timber-framed building. It later emerged that the government had also failed to install a sprinkler system. Although there was an investigation, no members of Group 4 were ever prosecuted.[1] The centre was closed and the burnt B site was demolished.

In September 2003, the undamaged half was re-opened after extensive rebuilding, with an initial capacity of 60. The centre's capacity was increased to 120 by August 2004 and to its full operational capacity of 405 by the end of 2005. The other half is still a waste land.

A 2006 report by Legal Action for Women, entitled A 'Bleak House' in Our Times, found that over 70 percent of the women detained in Yarl's Wood were rape victims. Few of the 130 women surveyed were able to get specialist help and some were detained for over a year.[58]

An inquiry by the Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2006 into the quality of healthcare at Yarl's Wood found that the healthcare service provided was "not geared to meet the needs of those with serious health problems or the significant number of detainees held for longer periods for whom prolonged and uncertain detention was itself likely to be detrimental to their well being."[59] Mental health care provision for women detainees was particularly insufficient. Similar concerns have been echoed by subsequent inspection reports.

"The worst feature that emerges from these inspections is the dehumanising aspects of the immigration removal process itself. Some of those we observed in detention had been dealt with by the immigration authorities as though they were parcels, not people; and parcels whose contents and destination were sometimes incorrect." - HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, February 2006

Doctors and experts from Medical Justice, who examined 56 cases over a six-month period in 2007, found that detainees with a history of torture and physical signs "consistent with or typical of" torture, as defined by the Istanbul Protocol on the Reporting of Torture, were being ignored by the Home Office and held in detention for lengthy periods.[60]

In one case a woman rape survivor, who had fled Cameroon after suffering rape and other torture, was detained at Yarl's Wood in December 2006, shortly after her arrival in the UK. She reported to the authorities that she was a rape survivor and, according to the Detention Centre Rules, should have been seen by a medical practitioner within 24 hours. Her report of rape was ignored and she was put on fast-track for deportation. In February 2008, she won £38,000 in damages for being unlawfully detained.[61]

In April 2007, Serco Ltd took over the management, operation and maintenance of Yarl's Wood, for an initial period of three years, with optional extension to up to eight years. Over the full eight years, the contract is valued at around £85m.[2]

Under Serco, Yarl's Wood became the UK's main immigration removal centre for women and families (until the end of child detention in 2010), with 284 single female and 121 family bed spaces. The contract had been awarded in December 2006.[3] In May 2008, the Home Office announced it will take forward planning applications to create extra spaces at the centre as part of its plans for "large-scale expansion" of Britain's detention estate, but the plans were shelved due to lack of funds.[4]

There have been numerous hunger strikes, riots and other acts of resistance by detainees in Yarl's Wood over the years, the 2002 fire being the most famous one. In December 2001, just a month after the opening of the centre, the first hunger strike began with five Roma detainees refusing to eat. In November 2006, a group of detainees rioted after being denied watching a news report criticising conditions at the centre. In May 2007, a month after Serco took over the running of the centre, women detainees began a hunger strike in response to new measures introduced by the new management. Similar hunger strikes took place in June 2009 and February 2010. Both times detainees were reportedly met with violent assaults by Serco security guards attempting to break up the protests. In the latter, four of the women, singled out as 'ringleaders', were transferred to normal prisons and held under immigration detention, without charge, for almost a year.

In 2009, Medical Justice reported that in at least 20 detainees with physical signs "consistent with or typical of" torture, it was not apparent that this had been investigated, even when reported to the Home Office. In one case, a woman who had fled a West African country after being repeatedly raped and tortured by soldiers had her asylum claim refused and was detained on Fast Track at Yarl's Wood for three and a half months. Despite serious health problems, she was denied treatment and was not seen by a gynaecologist nor screened for sexually transmitted infections. She eventually developed severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and was placed on suicide watch for several weeks after harming herself, yet failed attempts were made to deport her. She was only released after she was seen by a doctor working with Medical Justice.[62] In another case, a medico-legal report prepared by medical experts who noted that the medical evidence "gives strong support for the history of repeated rapes leading to life threatening gynaecological complications necessitating major surgery" was dismissed by the immigration judge, who apparently said the injuries "could have been caused by other means," without finding it necessary to investigate what these 'other means' could have been.[63]

In 2009, HM Inspector of Prisons found that the understanding and management of self-harm at Yarl's Wood was often superficial, with security taking precedence over health: "Many women were extremely anxious about their future, and the quality of support procedures for those at risk of self-harm was not consistently good, though there was some caring individual work. There had been no assessment of adult mental health needs."[72] Previous inspection reports, for example one in February 2006, had made similar criticisms about the centre.

Yarl's Wood consists of four units in a large, two-storey building. Until the detention of families was stopped in late 2010, there was a family unit (Crane), with a capacity of 121; a single women induction and first night unit (Bunting), with 42 beds; and two single women units (Avocet and Dove), with a capacity of 130 and 112 respectively. All Crane rooms, except one, are twin-bedded and interconnected in pairs to allow families to be located together. All Avocet and Dove rooms are twin-bedded, except for two single rooms in Avocet with some adaptations for people with disabilities. Most Bunting rooms, except three, are single. All rooms have simple en-suite toilet and shower facilities. The four units are connected by a central corridor, from which all ancillary areas, including the healthcare centre, can be accessed.

Detainees in Temporary Confinement (TC) under Detention Centre Rule 42 are held in the Kingfisher Separation Unit, in solitary cells called Removal From Association (RFA) rooms. Rooms in Bunting are also sometimes used for this purpose. During 2009, the Bunting RFA rooms were apparently converted into a 'family care suite'. During the second part of 2009, a new school building was constructed outside the main compound, formally opening in November that year. There is a Healthcare Centre on site, which provides primary healthcare for detainees, but is not always adequately staffed. Secondary care is referred - at least in theory - to the local Primary Care Trust.

Notes

[1] Stephen Shaw (Prisons and Probation Ombudsman), Report of the inquiry into the disturbance and fire at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, October 2004. http://www.ppo.gov.uk/docs/special-yarls-wood-fire-02.pdf.

[58] Legal Action for Women, A 'Bleak House' in Our Times: An investigation into Yarl's Wood Removal Centre, Crossroads, December 2005.

[59] HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Inquiry into the quality of healthcare at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 20 – 24 February 2006. p.5. http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmi-prisons/docs/yarls_wood_inquiry_final-rps.pdf.

[60] Medical Justice, 56 case-studies by Medical Justice, 2008. http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/content/view/15/50/ .

[61] Women Against Rape, 'Landmark damages for rape survivor detained unlawfully', n.d. http://www.womenagainstrape.net/media/landmark-damages-rape-survivor-detained-unlawfully.

[2] Serco, 'Serco to run Yarl's Wood immigration centre', http://www.serco.com/markets/homeaffairs/Copy_3_of_lowgrangerep.asp.

[3] Home Office, Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/organisation/immigrationremovalcentres/yarlswood.

[4] 'Yarl's Wood expansion put on hold', Bedford Today, 28 January 2010. http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/biggleswade-news/yarl_s_wood_expansion_put_on_hold_the_full_story_1_1099759.

[62] Medical Justice, 'Rape and torture survivor severely neglected by Yarl’s Wood healthcare', n.d. http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/content/view/267/50/ .

[63] Medical Justice, 'Medico-Legal Reports dismissed by immigration judges', n.d. http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/content/view/16/50/ .

[72] HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2009, p.5.