FY2012 : financial year ending 31st January 2012. Download the report.
Published : '“The Second Torture”: the immigration detention of torture survivors' "Victims of torture are routinely being held in immigration detention centres in breach of the government’s own rules, a new investigation has revealed. ... it claims that in all but one of 50 asylum seekers whose cases it investigated, only one was released under the so-called Rule 35 process that is supposed to safeguard torture victims on arrival in the UK." Download the report and see the Channel 4 news coverage. What you can do : we call for the immediate implementation of Rule 35 demonstrated through an independent audit of the process. To put pressure on the government to do this, ask your MP to sign EDM 95.
The Medical Justice Max Appeal - Transform our ability to produce medical evidence of the toxic effect of immigration detention on health. Financial appeal for Max, a computer system that will enable better case management of victims of torture and sick detainees. Max will deliver robust, independent evidence that can be used to defend the human rights of detainees and improve their circumstances. Please donate, thank you !
 "Fit to Fly" : a 10 minute film about our work, including interviews with ex-detainees and the doctors who visited them in detention centres. Ali, who took part in the 2009 demonstrations in Iran fled to the UK for safety and was detained. We arranged for a doctor to visit Ali in detention. She wrote a report documenting his scars of torture. He was eventually released and granted refugee status. Watch the film "Denied & Detained" - Most HIV+ immigration detainees helped by Medical Justice have been denied life-saving medication in detention according to our new research. “Detained & Denied”, based on the first ever comprehensive analysis of treatment of HIV+ immigration detainees in the UK draws on medical evidence from 8 independent clinicians who assessed the detainees. Many of the 35 men, women and children studied are torture survivors from countries where rape is used as a weapon of war.
 "State Sponsored Cruelty" - Key findings of this report : 41 cases are featured in this report involving children detained between 2004 and April 2010. These children spent a mean average of 26 days each in detention. One child had spent 166 days in detention, over numerous separate periods, before her third birthday. 48% of the children in this report were born in the UK.
74 children were psychologically harmed. Symptoms included bed wetting and loss of bowel control, heightened anxiety, and food refusal. 34 children exhibited signs of developmental regression, and six children expressed suicidal ideation either whilst in or after they were detained. Three girls attempted to end their own lives.
“The fact that UKBA is still detaining children at Yarl’s Wood despite announcements to the contrary raises serious questions about the consistency between the will of government and the actions of UKBA. The government must now show it is in control of UKBA. It must order and ensure the release of any detained children today and stop what the Deputy Prime Minister correctly refers to as ‘state sponsored cruelty’. The dossier of evidence we are publishing brings to light the extent to which detaining children cases harm, suffering, and anguish. Children have attempted to end their own lives, and have been left seriously physically and psychologically damaged ”.
Jon Burnett, Medical Justice, author of “‘State Sponsored Cruelty’: Children in immigration detention”
Download the 'State Sponsored Cruely' report
"Outsourcing Abuse - The use and misuse of state-sanctioned force during the detention and removal of asylum seekers" by Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and NCADC describes an alarming number of injuries sustained by asylum deportees at the hand of private “escorts” contracted by the Home Office. It reveals evidence of widespread and seemingly systemic abuse and that assault claims have largely been brushed off by the Home Office. Press release
About Medical Justice
Medical Justice facilitates the provision of independent medical advice and independent legal advice and representation to asylum seekers detained in immigration removal centres. We also seek to negotiate changes to policy and practice within detention centres and publish our findings on the treatment of detainees. We have had some notable successes in those respects.
Medical Justice was established in October 2005 and its membership comprises highly skilled medical professionals, solicitors, barristers, ex-detainees and detention centre visitors. The national office for Medical Justice is located in London in addition to two regional branches in Oxford and Dover/Canterbury.
To download the Medical Justice booklet, click here.
What Medical Justice has found in Immigration Removal Centres
Torture Victims – neglected and re-traumatised by detention in the UK
HIV - unplanned disruption to their treatment in detention, denied HIV tests and results
Hunger strikers – detainees in imminent danger of organ failure
Tuberculosis (TB) – a number of detainees found to have TB and denied appropriate medical care
Denial of treatment and access to hospital – many detainees are denied treatment for serious medical conditions
56 case-studies by Medical Justice
Malaria – many children and pregnant women being deported to high risk malarial areas have not been offered appropriate prophylaxis or bed nets - more info
Depression and suicide – many detainees have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, self-harm and attempt suicide
Harm on Removal – detainees subjected to excessive and/or gratuitous force in the removal process with injuries including fractured bones, nerve damage and sexual assault
Children in Detention - the UK is the only EU country to indefinitely detain children, sometimes referred to by guards as “child male” and “child female”
Death
Lack of legal representation for detainees
What Medical Justice achieved since it formed in October 2005
Some examples:
Background Information
Responsibility for healthcare in Immigration Detention
How many men, women and children are indefinitely detained?
About healthcare provision in immigration detention
About healthcare provision for asylum seekers "in the community"
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