Degrading treatment and abuse revealed at Gatwick detention centre

It found that there were breaches of human rights laws concerning torture at the centre – Brook House – with people being physically and verbally abused by staff.

Some detainees – mainly failed asylum seekers awaiting deportation – were moved while naked from their cells and were inflicted with ‘unnecessary pain’ by the use of force.

The inquiry was launched after a BBC Panorama programme covertly filmed at Brook House in 2017 showing it as a violent, dysfunctional and unsafe place.

Inquiry chairman Kate Eves, in a report out today, said she found 19 incidents of ‘credible evidence of acts or omissions that were capable of amounting to mistreatment.’

She said one of the most shocking incidents she considered was a detention custody officer placing his hands firmly round a detained person’s neck, leaning over him, swearing at him, calling him names and saying: “I’m going to put you to ******* sleep.”

She is now calling on the government to change the law to limit the amount of time people can be detained in detention centres to 28 days. There is currently no maximum time people can be kept in custody before deportation.

She added: “It is clear that more needs to be done at the highest levels of government to ensure that detained people are accorded the dignity and compassion they deserve.”

Among incidents she highlighted were inappropriate force used against detainees attempting self-harm; people being forcibly removed from their cells while naked or near-naked; pain being unncessarily inflicted during the use of force; dangerous restraint techniques; people being subjected to physical violence; staff making inappropriate and humiliating comments to people who were mentally unwell; and denying a person access to a shower preventing him from performing cleansing rituals fundamental to his religion.

Brook House was originally built to the specification of a Category B prison but without facilities for holding detained people for more than a few days. In practice, most were held for much longer.

There were poor, sometimes dirty, facilities and a lack of activities. Detainees stayed in small, poorly ventilated cells, containing toilets that were sometimes unscreened and unclean. “This led to humiliating experiences for many detained people,” said the report.

The report also found there were limited activities for detainees and prolific use of the zombie drug Spice, with evidence custody officers were bringing it into the centre. Overcrowding was also an issue.

Inquiry chairman Kate Eves has made 33 recommendations for changes. She said: “Lessons must be learned, a culture of change must prevail and recommendations must be acted upon. The events that occurred at Brook House cannot be repeated.”

She has instructed the Home Office to publish details of the steps they will take within the next six months.

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Sonya Sceats, chief executive of Freedom from Torture, which gave evidence at the inquriy said: “We know from our specialist therapy services across the country how profoundly damaging detention is for survivors of torture.

"Survivors should never be detained by the Home Office, and the racist abuse and mistreatment they and others have suffered in centres like Brook House is a national disgrace.”