The Asylum Rights Campaign is a coalition of organisations working in the field of asylum, human rights and migration and which meets monthly to share information, joint work and best practice on campaigning. The ARC has members from across the UK and is chaired by Maurice Wren, Director of Asylum Aid, and Eiri Ohtani, formerly of the Asylum Support Appeals Project.

Detention Sub Group:

Detention is a major concern for ARC members and as such there is also a monthly meeting of those members who are directly involved with immigration detention to discuss issues affecting detainees and to share information. The ARC Detention Sub Group meets monthly in central London and is chaired by Richard Lumley, Protection Adviser at the Refugee Council.  The group comprises many members of detainee visitors groups and therefore is the key forum for very practical discussion on the day to day realities in immigration removalcentres for detainees. The group shares concerns and experiences, as well as working together to arrive at common conclusions to specific issues. Recently, items under discussion by the ARC Detention Sub Group have included:

• Problems in accessing competent legal advice for immigration detainees
• Standards of health care in immigration removal centres
• Access to bail
• The absence of a welfare operating standard

AVID attends these meetings and is able to collate and coordinate input from visitors groups and other organisations to the UK Border Agency. This is done via our regular attendance at:

• UKBA Detention User Group: This forum meets quarterly and is the key arena for NGOS and UKBA Detention Services  to discuss detention operational policy and practice
• UKBA Detention User Group’s Medical Sub Group: as above, this forum meets quarterly to discuss issues pertaining to medical issues in detention.

AVID can also take forward the specific concerns of our member visitor groups directly to the UK Border Agency . Other members of theUKBA DUG include Refugee Council, Bail for Immigration Detainees, and Medical Justice, amongst others.

Please contact AVID using the links to the left for more information on ARC’s Detention Sub Group or how you can feed in to these stakeholder mechanisms.