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Medical Justice Annual Report FY2012
Posted by Administrator
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:
- Handled more than 500 patients in detention
- Conducted more than 125 medical visits into detention centres
- Written over 100 MLRs, professional statements and letters
- 75% of patients released after Medical Justice intervention
- Over 300 Medical Justice members
- Website and news-service
- London office and Medical Justice groups in Oxford and Kent
- Literature for detainees includes "Know Your Medical Rights"
- Lobbied for HMIP Inquiry into healthcare at Yarl's Wood
- HMIP inquiry findings echoed all of Medical Justice’s main objectives
- Meeting and Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR)
- A number of Home Office policy changes that make immigration detention less harmful
- Influenced registration of detention centre healthcare providers with the Healthcare Commission
- Medical Justice articles in the British Medical Journal
- Recent Media coverage includes - Channel 4 News, Radio 4, articles in the New Stateman and Guardian.
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"
Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 October 2012
About us
Posted by Administrator
Medical Justice is a network of volunteers who expose and challenge medical abuse in immigration detention. Our volunteers include ex-detainees, doctors, lawyers and other experts. We have no formal funding and no paid staff ; we rely on private donations and unpaid work by members.
Medical Justice is not a charity, is not government-funded, is not qualified or registered to give immigration advice, and is not part of the NHS (although we strongly support it).
Welcome message from the Chair of Medical Justice
"Medical Justice has been in existence for almost two years and has grown faster than anyone envisaged. It owes its existence entirely to the extraordinary generosity of everyone involved in working with it. It is an organisation built on people’s kindness to others and on a shared belief in human dignity and freedom. Medical Justice’s work relies on a unique and exciting collaboration between asylum seekers, ex-detainees, solicitors, barristers, doctors, nurses, campaigners, detention centre visitors and other volunteers.
But the problem is not only that people in detention are perceived as being of less value, it is that they also come to be treated as such. All of those who work with detainees share experiences of neglect, discrimination and abuse on a scale that is saddening and frightening. I see Medical Justice’s work as reminding ourselves that we must treat all people with equal value, not just for those people’s sakes, but for the sake of our society.
We have now assisted over 500 individuals held in detention. We have had numerous successes in changing policy and practice in detention centres. We have a number of publications to our name. We have managed to raise awareness of the problems in detention centres through our work and media activities.
I hope that this booklet may give some insight into the scale of the problems we have encountered and why we are working so hard to bring them to an end. We believe that the harm being caused by these institutions is so widespread that the only solution is to close them down. In time we will succeed in that aim. In the interim, we work to reform the institutions and to stand up for the rights of those held within them.
I sincerely hope you will support the work of Medical Justice."
Alexander Goodman
Chair of Medical Justice
Photo above : Medical Justice Parliamentary Launch, 12/07/07, left to right - Lord Ramsbotham, Dr Felicity de Zulueta, Alexander Goodman, Dr Jonathan Fluxman, Dr Frank Arnold, Mr FK.
More about Medical Justice ;
What Medical Justice has uncovered in immigration detention centres
About Medical Justice's activities
Medical Justice Aims & Objectives
Medical Justice founded and run by ex-detainees
Medical Justice groups ;
Medical Justice London
Medical Justice Oxford
Medical Justice Kent
Medical Justice North West
Last Updated on Sunday, 10 February 2008
Leigh Day : "Detention of Torture Survivors Ruled Unlawful" - 17/05/13
Posted by Emma Ginn
Leigh Day press release ;
Last Updated on Friday, 17 May 2013
Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture - 18/12/02
Posted by Emma Ginn
Adopted on 18 December 2002 at the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations by resolution A/RES/57/199
IX IRCT International Symposium on Torture - 09/12/06
Posted by Emma Ginn
IX IRCT International Symposium on Torture
Providing Reparation and Treatment, Preventing Impunity
9 - 10 December 2006 Berlin, Germany
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