(UK) Asylum seekers 'dumped and forgotten' in detention centres, says report

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Source: Guardian UK

Keeping detainees indefinitely wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, says support group


Hundreds of failed asylum seekers and foreign ex-offenders are being held in detention centres for indefinite periods because political sensitivity means the Home Office cannot remove or release them, according to a report.

In one case highlighted by the study, which is due to be published tomorrow, a detainee was held for eight years before finally being deported.

Keeping detainees in limbo is wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, said Jerome Phelps, director of the London Detainee Support Group (LDSG), which provides support to those held in British immigration centres.

Phelps said people who could not be deported were being "dumped and forgotten". The practice had a huge psychological impact on detainees, with significant numbers developing mental health problems, self-harming and attempting suicide, he said.

Of 188 long-term detainees studied by the LDSG over a period of 20 months, only 18% were deported. A quarter were eventually released and 57% remained in detention.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/28/asylum-seekers-detention