Vulnerable migrants are routinely handcuffed and detained for hours, report finds

Vulnerable migrants detained in Britain detention Centre A devastating report found handcuffs are being routinely used and some are being detained for hours.

Examples of unnecessary force include a 70-year-old small and frail man being handcuffed during a hospital visit despite having no history of being disruptive, and another man being restrained with rigid bar cuffs, a waist-restraint belt, as well as thigh and ankle restraints for more than four and a half hours.

Force and restraint are meant to be used only as a last resort, but inspectors Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), who oversee prisons and detention Centrefound that it was being largely neglected By immigration staff.

The IMB report published on Wednesday found that force was inconsistently used against people who were admitted unsecured, and that health care workers were not immediately informed when it happened. In one case, it took staff more than four hours to tell doctors that a man had been restrained despite repeatedly banging his head on a wooden bed frame.

It said the cases highlighted were affecting people’s willingness to attend hospital appointments due to the stigma of being handcuffed.

In another case, a man who was at risk of self-harm or suicide was stopped when he was taken from a detention center to the airport for deportation. The man removed his trousers during the journey and was carried onto the plane naked from the waist down, soiling himself in the process. He shouted at the escorting staff and threw a blanket to cover him. The report found that the employee then took turns sitting on his knees or standing on the seat in front and started pushing his head on his own seat.

An enforcement officer threatened pain to a detained migrant in another case, failing to acknowledge the threat in a review of the incident. In another case, a staff member used force against a migrant and then reviewed the incident himself.

Elizabeth Davis, national chair of the IMB, said: “The findings of this report are extremely worrying. To legitimize the use of force, it must be necessary, justified, proportionate and justified, but what we are seeing is a system where restraints have become routine, monitoring is weak, and the dignity of detained individuals is often disregarded.”

Ms Davis warned that little was being done to learn lessons from the Brook House inquiry, which was launched after a 2017 undercover investigation by Panorama filmed shocking scenes of abuse against detainees.

“The Home Office is still not doing enough to prevent such failings happening again,” Ms Davis said.

Kate Eves, who chaired the Brooke House inquiry, said Independent: “Two years on, two years after the findings of the statutory inquiry into abuse at Brooke House, the same issues have been identified. There should be no doubt that excessive use of force, coupled with the lack of strong safeguards, contributes to a toxic environment where vulnerable people are more likely to be abused.”

He said the IMB report shows that despite assurances, lessons have not been learned.

A spokesman for the charity Medical Justice, which supports people in custody, said the Home Office had “an inexcusable disregard for the safety of vulnerable people in its care”.

A man named Saeed, who was supported by the charity before being removed from France under the UK-France treaty, said belts were used to restrain him during his deportation.

He told the charity: “[Enforcement staff] Started opening their bags and taking out four different belts and started using them forcefully and tying me up. They hit my head on the wall several times while I was screaming in pain, but they were not kind to me.

“The belt around my shoulders got stuck around my neck. I started screaming and saying I wanted to die, take the belt off my neck, but they thought I just wanted to let go.”

gatwick immigration detention The center reported that almost all migrants assigned to the hospital in 2024 and early 2025 were handcuffed, with inspectors finding that restraints had become “the default rather than the exception.”

People were also routinely being handcuffed at Luton Airport when being taken to removal flights.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Last week, the Home Secretary announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times, which will make it easier to remove and deport migrants. As part of this, we are reforming human rights laws and replacing the broken appeals system.

“We will consider the report’s findings carefully. The Home Office reviews all incidents of use of force to ensure that techniques are used proportionately.”