[Press release] Reaction to HMIP report on Women's experiences in Immigration Detention 2026

‍FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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14 July 2026

Contact:
Gee Manoharan, Co-Director of Policy and Influencing
Email: gee.manoharan@aviddetention.org.uk
Phone: 0207 281 0533

 Women’s trauma ignored across immigration detention estate

 A major new report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons exposes systemic failures to protect women in immigration detention, including survivors of trafficking, sexual and domestic violence, pregnant women and women experiencing severe mental ill-health.

The thematic review, Women’s experience of immigration detention, finds that women’s needs are routinely overlooked and found failures at every stage—from the initial decision to detain, through transfers and treatment inside detention, to release and contact with families. The report reveals that:

• Four in ten women in immigration removal centres were officially recognised as adults at risk, while more than half of the women whose cases inspectors reviewed at Dungavel IRC and Derwentside IRC, had documented histories of domestic or sexual violence
• Home Office officials repeatedly failed to identify or properly consider evidence of mental illness, pregnancy, trafficking, sexual abuse and other vulnerabilities before authorising detention.
• Some women were detained even after the Home Office’s own Detention Gatekeeper had refused to authorise their detention.
• One woman experiencing an acute mental-health crisis was wrongly recorded as having no vulnerabilities and subsequently spent almost three months in     segregation before being transferred to hospital.
• Women  who were pregnant, elderly, physically unwell or at risk of suicide were     subjected to exhausting transfers, including late at night and with all-male escort crews. Around three in ten women arriving at Derwentside IRC during one three-month period arrived between 10pm and 7am.
• Women were routinely handcuffed during some hospital and centre transfers, without adequate individual risk assessments. One survivor of abuse became     so distressed by being handcuffed that she later avoided reporting pain because she feared being restrained again.
• Only 22% of women surveyed at Dungavel and Derwentside had received a visit from family or friends, yet inspectors found little proactive support for women separated from children, relatives and other support networks.
• Interpretation was frequently unavailable for ordinary daily communication, leaving women isolated and unable to understand information about their detention. One woman described the experience as “living in a cage”.

Members of AVID networks has said the findings demonstrate that these are not isolated incidents or the result of a few poorly trained staff. They reflect a detention system that repeatedly places administrative convenience above women’s safety, dignity, and wellbeing.

Mixed-gender detention is structurally unsafe

The report confirms many longstanding concerns about holding women in mixed-gender detention centres such as Dungavel IRC, Yarl’s Wood IRC and Residential Short Term Holding Facilities (RSTHF).

These arrangements expose the fundamental problem with mixed-gender detention. Instead of providing women with an environment designed around their safety and needs, the system restricts their movement and access to services. At the same time, it treats detained men collectively as a risk to be controlled, despite their own individual circumstances, vulnerabilities and experiences of harm.

 Gee Manoharan, Co-Director at Association of Visitors To Immigration Detainees (AVID), said:

 “This report exposes a detention estate that does not protect women from harm but compounds it. At Yarl’s Wood IRC and Dungavel IRC, women can be restricted from accessing essential services in mixed-gender centres. At Derwentside IRC, traumatised women face male officers, late-night transfers and profound isolation. This harm is not an accidental flaw in the system; it is built into the bricks and mortar of immigration detention. Women’s trauma, family ties and warnings about their health are repeatedly lost between Home Office databases, detention centres and escort vans.

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Kate Alexander, Director ofScottish Detainee Visitors said: 

"This report confirms many of the concerns we have about the detention of women, especially in mixed sex centres like Dungavel. Particularly shocking is a photograph of men at Dungavel looking through the windows of the women's unit there, something women have told us about at our visits. That only 5 per cent of women at Dungavel felt safe in the outside areas of the centre is a disturbing statistic that highlights the very specific experience of women detained there. The report adds to the large body of evidence that detaining people indefinitely for immigration purposes causes harm. Along with our partners in the AVID network, we will continue to argue for an end to immigration detention and a move to community based alternatives"

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‍Further added by Gee Manoharan on the overall picture: ‍

“In mixed-gender centres, the Home Office responds to risks of its own making by restricting women’s movement and treating detained men as a collective threat. That protects nobody and dehumanises everyone.

Neither women nor men in detention created these conditions. The Government did.

The Government must immediately end the use of mixed-gender immigration detention, stop detaining survivors of violence and trafficking, and invest in community-based support so that people can live safely while resolving their immigration cases.”

Carenza Muggleton-Arnold, Head of Campaigns at Women for Refugee Women, says:

“This report lays bare the reality that women are harmed by immigration detention. Many women in detention are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence including rape, forced marriage, trafficking and other forms of torture, yet their vulnerabilities and experiences are too often overlooked, causing further and long-lasting harm to survivors. The findings show that detention is not simply failing to protect women from harm – it is actively and systemically causing further harm. From late-night transfers and the use of handcuffs to isolation from children and loved ones, or the restriction of access to services, women are being subjected to conditions that can re-traumatise them and worsen existing mental health difficulties. The report adds to the overwhelming evidence that immigration detention is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of women. The Government must move away from the use of detention and invest instead in community-based approaches that treat women with humanity and respect.”

‍ENDS‍

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Organisations details:

• Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) – national network for visitor groups across the UK – and working to end immigration detention;
• Scottish Detainee Visitors (SDV) – visit men and women detained at Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre(Lanarkshire, Scotland);
• Women for Refugee Women (WRW) - support refugee and asylum-seeking women who have fled persecution including rape, gender-based violence, domestic     violence, forced marriage, female-genital cutting, sexual violence, torture, and trafficking to rebuild their lives on their own terms.

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