Detained father with 3 year old cut his own wrist – hospitalised then released

This week the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) released its annual report on the Pre-Departure Accommodation (PDA) detention facility at Gatwick.

13 of the 15 families detained were later released, questioning why they were detained in the first place.

The father of a three year old cut his own wrist with a broken glass and was hospitalized before the family was released.

The 15 families were made up of 18 adults and 24 children. 

The IMB’s other concerns included ;

• Children being taken from their homes and facing removal to a country that they do not know. 
• Families subject to a third country removal were “particularly resistant to being removed, concerned as to the levels of deprivation they will exposed to on their return.”
• Monitoring carried out by the family returns unit is not sufficiently independent to ensure that all aspects of the removal process are carried out consistently humanely.
• No system exists to monitor regularly and independently the arrest and transfer of families to the PDA. 

Read the report in full here.