Immigrants: Detainees
(asked on 16th January 2020) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that those placed in detention centres are not held indefinitely; and what plans, if any, they have to restrict detention in immigration centres to 28 days.
Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 29th January 2020
The law does not permit indefinite detention. For detention to be lawful there must be a realistic prospect of the individual’s removal from the UK within a reasonable timescale.
Most of those people detained for immigration purposes spend only short periods in detention. In the year ending September 2019, 96% left detention within 4 months and 73% in no longer than 28 days.