Annual reports

Your support meant that despite the many challenges in the year ending 31st January 2026, Medical Justice was able to protect lives, prevent a roll-back of rights on many issues and secured positive change in key areas – see how we did it in our annual report.

Just some of the achievements in the year ending 31^st January 2026 included ;

• 90% of clients released by the Home Office having received a medico-legal report from a Medical Justice clinician.
• Homelessness on release avoided and continuity of vital treatment such as radiotherapy secured in the community.
• 444 client referrals – many were assessed by our clinicians who documented their scars of torture, health deterioration, injuries sustained during violent deportation attempts and medical mistreatment.
• Home Office compelled to review policy that creates homelessness – following the case of our client BLZ who had been released from detention without accommodation suitable for his physical and mental disabilities.
• Detention guards must not put detained people in segregation to facilitate removal – and must recognise when disruptive behaviour may be due to mental health or learning difficulties following our policy consultation submission.
• Supreme Court success means the Home Office must always consult us on Adults at Risk policy – this boosts our policy work effectiveness and other charities have since successfully used the precedent our case set.
• New policy provides some protection for detained people who lost mental capacity – following our judicial review proceedings
• Home Office halted removal of ‘one-in one-out’ trafficking survivors following provision of medical evidence – and the High Court has since found the reduction in protections for survivors and the failure to consider crucial evidence including from Medical Justice was unlawful, compelling policy change.

The year included yet more degrading treatment of our clients. Much of our casework and advocacy work was taken up with the UK-France ‘One-in-one out’ scheme – as dehumanising as its very name suggests, treating displaced people as items for exchange. We believe that a continuum of this dehumanising approach risks mistreatment in detention and for it to go – at best – unnoticed by the public, and at worst – accepted. We responded to government plans to use force on children to remove them from the UK, including handcuffing them, another marker of a society that has become desensitised and lost its way.

There are people who do care, and we are blessed to have so many in our circle. Staff, volunteers, funders and supporters who refuse to submit to the narrative of inhumanity.  We are all working together to challenge what is happening alongside those whose humanity is being attacked.  People who have lived experience of immigration detention and our immigration system help work out how best to support our clients and remind us good outcomes are possible.

Medical Justice secured its first dedicated operations support role in 2025 – we welcomed Imogen as Head of Operations. This strengthening of the organisation is crucial for facing what we know lies ahead – the government has plan that make the lives of more migrants even more precarious, risking exploitation and criminalisation, leading ultimately to more immigration detention and deportation. It plans to expand detention by 40% and to decimate clinical safeguards in detention which we fear may cost more lives. The need for Medical Justice’s work will not be abating this year.

We agree with the British Medical Association that immigration removal centres should be phased out – this will clearly take time and it will not happen without the work we are doing now. Meanwhile, we made a real difference during the year – thanks to the unwavering determination of the Medical Justice team, we have been changing lives and clients say that we have saved their lives. This is why we must continue.  We need your support to do so.

Message from Bridget, Vice-Chair, Medical Justice :

“I know what it feels like to be detained. I know the disorientation, the fear, and the profound sense of helplessness that immigration detention inflicts on a person. And I know from the inside what a difference it makes when someone shows up for you in that darkness. That is what Medical Justice does. Every single day, for some of the most vulnerable people in our society, this extraordinary team shows up. It takes immense strength and dedication to be present with clients at what may well be the most difficult moment of their lives and yet our team does it, again and again, without question. In FY2026, they did it for 444 people. I am profoundly grateful for everything they give.”

Read the annual report here.