We raise concerns about our clients’ care with the healthcare unit in Immigration Removal Centres, arrange assessments by our clinicians who write medical reports, and refer clients to competent lawyers who can properly harness the strength of the medical evidence we generate. We also refer clients to other relevant organisations and community services for treatment, therapy and other support on release from detention.
Our casework remit covers 3 groups of people in detention:
a. Those who report having been subjected to torture or ill-treatment and need the physical or psychological signs to be documented in a medico-legal report for it to be considered as part of a legal case (generally an asylum or immigration case or one related to their continued detention). It is our experience that the majority of people who we see in detention are later released and may go on to be granted refugee status.
b. Those who have a medical condition and require an assessment of their treatment and support. Our clinicians frequently draft letters outlining such significant medical concerns, the treatment that is required, and assess how they relate to whether someone is fit to fly, or whether and to what extent someone is adversely affected by continued immigration detention.
c. Those who allege that they were assaulted or had excessive force used on them in detention or during an attempted removal. This area of work is particularly challenging.
Casework is at the heart of everything Medical Justice does – it forms the evidential basis of our advocacy work to secure lasting change.
If you are a clinician or interpreter and would like to find out how you can volunteer and help support us and people in detention, please visit our Volunteering page.
If you would like to refer a detainee to Medical Justice, please see our Make a referral page.
