A new immigration detention centre (IDC) for women is planned to open at the former Secure Training Centre, in Medomsley, County Durham later this year. In her position as co-chair of the Forensic and Secure Environments Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA), our Medical Director, Dr Rachael Pickering, was one of hundreds of signatories to a letter sent to the Home Secretary yesterday detailing concerns about this IDC.
Coordinated by Women for Refugee Women with other campaign groups, this letter outlines concerns that this new detention centre would pose serious mental health risks to the women it would detain. It has been found that just under half of women in another IDC have self-harmed, and many of these women were already survivors of torture, rape and trafficking, with their detention only adding to the trauma they had previously experienced.
These women arrive in this country extremely vulnerable, often claiming they have had to flee persecution in their country of origin. Whether this claim is true is for the government to decide, but does this necessitate locking them up and treating them as criminals?
There are other ways to monitor and track these women in the community as they apply for asylum, so what is the point of this facility? How will it benefit their care? Why don’t we take this opportunity to extend compassion to them rather than imprisoning them?
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