Overall conditions
The purpose-built IRCs (Colnbrook, Brook House and the later wings at Harmondsworth) are built to ‘Category B’ (high security) prison designs, and are run by private security companies. While some efforts are made by contractors to distinguish regimes from those in prisons, in practice the physical environment means that most detainees experience these centres as prisons.[1] The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture raised concerns about the use of these prison-like facilities.[2] Concerns continue to be raised about Brook House looking and feeling like a prison, with inadequate ventilation of cells and inability to open windows.[3]
Women are detained separately from men[4] except at Dungavel or where they are a family. Tinsley House has accommodation for two family groups at a time[5].
In theory health care provided to detainees is not limited to emergency health care; however, in practice detainees have difficulty obtaining access to care. Inspection reports frequently mention issues concerning the care of vulnerable individuals.[6] A report by the British Medical Association expressed concern at how health needs were met in detention, as well as commenting that some disabilities are not identified.[7] Medical Justice published a report in 2025 which continued to find issues with the quality of healthcare in detention, with missed diagnoses of mental health conditions and the quality of healthcare not reaching the equivalent of that provided in the community.[8]
Provision of showers, laundry facilities, etc. is usually to an adequate level so that detainees have access, but standards of cleanliness and repair are variable, with some detention centres having a much better maintained environment[9] and others poor. In particular some of the older prison buildings can be poorly maintained and drab.
Detainees normally wear their own clothes.
IRCs provide ‘cultural kitchens’ where detainees can cook food of their choice.[10]
In 2017 an employee of Brook House IRC worked with the BBC to report undercover, resulting in a documentary broadcast in September 2017 which showed detention centre staff verbally and physically abusing detained people.[11] A statutory inquiry was set up in response and its report was published in September 2023.[12] Key findings included 19 credible breaches of article 3 during the five month period examined, and a toxic culture. The report made 33 recommendations, including a 28 day time limit on detention, a review of the use of force, and training for staff and reviews of policies. In response, the government declined to implement a time limit on detention but said that it was carrying out reviews of policies.[13]
A report from HMIP in 2024 described Brook House as understaffed and said that violence and self-harm had increased since the previous inspection and that detainees moving from prisons to the IRC had created instability. At least 20 detainees had been released from the detention centre to street homelessness in the year preceding the report.[14] A follow up inspection in 2025 found that level of violence had stabilised but was still too high and progress had been made in tackling drugs entering the centre. The report said that more needed to be done in certain areas including support for vulnerable detainees and routine use of handcuffs when people were escorted off site.[15]
An inspection of Scotland’s only IRC, Dungavel, was one of the more positive of recent inspections with inspectors in 2025 commending a “culture of care” throughout the centre with 86% of detainees reporting being treated with respect by staff. However, the report noted that the centre “still held men with a history of sexual violence” who present “significant ongoing risks to women” and monthly safety meetings with women were not taking place, contrary to policy.[16]
In 2024, a report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons described conditions in Harmondsworth as “decrepit” and that “violence and other unacceptable behaviour such as drug use had substantially increased and there had been numerous serious attempts at suicide”.[17] A follow up report in 2025 found “substantial improvements” with staff levels doubled and a programme of rebuilding and refurbishment addressing the previous problems with the neglected and dirty communal areas. Improvements to activities and welfare provision were helping people manage the stress of detention.[18]
Analysis of HMIP reports in 2024 showed a trend of a “worrying deterioration in safety” across all of the immigration removal centres.[19] A report from the Jesuit Refugee Service in 2024 also found that across the immigration removal centres immigration detention felt like prison, people were inappropriately segregated, there were large deficiencies in healthcare provision, safeguards for vulnerable people were largely absent, force was used inappropriately and gratuitously and there was a staffing culture of abuse and humiliation.[20]
Campsfield was closed in 2018 after years of problems including complaints about conditions, however the centre was reopened in December 2025.[21]
Activities
The rules require that each detainee should have the opportunity of at least one hour in the open air every day. This can be withdrawn in exceptional circumstances for safety or security.[22] Most IRCs have a gym or fitness suite and outdoor exercise space. Access is variable, ranging from being generally accessible during daylight hours to restricted access.
Detainees have access to the detention centre library and to the internet. Facilities normally include a fax machine. New guidance was issued by the Home Office in 2016, aiming to make the access in detention centres more consistent and ensure that sites were not inappropriately blocked, although it does not apply to those held in prisons. This guidance was updated in 2019.[23]
Health care and special needs in detention
The Detention Centres Rules provide that there must be a medical team in each detention centre, and that each detainee must be medically examined within 24 hours of arrival.[24] The only provision in the rules as to what access to the medical team a detainee can expect or request is that where a detainee asks a detention centre officer for medical attention, the officer must record the request and pass it to the medical team, and the medical practitioner must pay special attention to any detainee whose mental condition appears to require it.[25]
The charity Medical Justice has documented the denial of crucial medical care for those with HIV[26] as well as more generally.[27] A more recent legal challenge held that the Home Office was in breach of its legal duty towards detainees with HIV.[28] In 2017 the British Medical Association published a report raising several concerns, including how doctors deal with the conflict of interest inherent in providing healthcare to people who are detained and made a number of recommendations.[29] The guidance on ‘Rule 35’ reports was revised in 2019 although an ICIBI inspection published in 2023 found that the Rule 35 process was not meeting its aim and that safeguards were not working consistently or effectively.[30]
While guidance has been produced for those needing to be taken to hospital from detention,[31] anecdotal reports of last-minute cancellations are common.[32]
Health care in England is managed under the National Health Service (NHS) commissioning provisions.[33] The Home Office does not collect data on the numbers of people with mental illness in immigration detention. A Freedom of Information request showed that between January 2018 and September 2023 there were 1,743 self-harm and suicide attempts that were so serious that medical treatment was required. This was across four of the IRCs, Brook House and Tinsley House, Heathrow, and Yarl’s Wood.[34] From June 2023 to May 2024 there were 513 incidents of self-harm, an increase from 308 the year before.[35]
Detention centres have a local group of approved visitors, who provide an external point of reference for detainees and the centre. Visitors increasingly report that detainees are experiencing high levels of anxiety and distress, are self-harming, have symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or are suffering from severe and enduring mental illness.[36]
[1] See e.g. Brook House Inquiry Report, 2023, available here.
[2] Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, ‘Anti-torture committee highlights immigration issues in the UK’, 8 February 2024, available here.
[3] HMIP, ‘Report on an independent review of progress at Brook House IRC 29-31 July 2025’, 1 September 2025, available here.
[4] Independent Monitoring Boards, ‘The re-purposing of Yarl’s Wood IRC leads to a challenging year’, 7 July 2023, available here.
[5] HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre (17 April – 5 May 2023)’, 7 August 2023, available here.
[6] HM Inspector of Prisons, ’Annual Report, 2024-25’, 8 July 2025, available here.
[7] British Medical Association, ‘Locked up, locked out’, 2017, available here.
[8] Medical Justice, ‘Annual Review: The state of healthcare and harm in UK immigration detention in 2024’, July 2025, available here.
[9] HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside IRC 15 September – 3 October 2025’, 6 January 2026, available here.
[10] See e.g. HMIP, ‘Report on an independent review of progress at Brook House IRC 29-31 July 2025’, 1 September 2025, available here and HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside IRC 15 September – 3 October 2025’, 6 January 2026, available here.
[11] Alison Holt, ‘What I saw when I went undercover’, BBC, 4 September 2017, available here.
[12] The Brook House Inquiry Report, 19 September 2023, available here.
[13] Home Office and Immigration Enforcement, ‘Government response to the Brook House Inquiry report’, 19 March 2024, available here.
[14] HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (5–22 August 2024)’, 18 November 2024, available here.
[15] HMIP, ‘Report on an independent review of progress at Brook House IRC 29-31 July 2025’, 1 September 2025, available here.
[16] HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Dungavel House IRC 18-21 August and 1-4 September 2025’, 1 December 2025, available here.
[17] HMIP, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (12–29 February 2024)’, 9 July 2024, available here.
[18] HMIP, ‘Report on an independent review of progress at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (17-19 February 2025)’, 8 April 2025, available here.
[19] Andrew Kersley, ‘‘Worrying deterioration in safety’ at UK immigration removal centres, warns chief inspector of prisons’, The Guardian, 4 August 2024, available here.
[20] Jesuit Refugee Service, ‘After Brook House: continued abuse in immigration detention’, May 2024, available here.
[21] BBC News, ‘Immigration detention centre officially reopens’, 5 December 2025, available here.
[22] The Detention Centre Rules 2001 SI No. 238, Rule 18, available here.
[23] Home Office, Detention Services Order January 2020, available here.
[24] The Detention Centre Rules 2001 SI No. 238, available here.
[25] The Detention Centre Rules 2001 SI No. 238, Rules 33 and 35, available here.
[26] Medical Justice, ‘Detained and Denied: the clinical care of detainees living with HIV/AIDS’, 2011, available here.
[27] Medical Justice, ‘Inadequate healthcare in detention’, accessed 24 March 2024, available here.
[28] High Court, CSM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2175 (Admin), available here,
[29] British Medical Association, Locked up, locked out, 2017, available here.
[30] ICIBI, ‘Third annual inspection of Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention June to September 2022’, January 2023, available here.
[31] Home Office, ‘Detention Services Order – Medical Appointments outside of the detention estate’, 17 May 2024, available here.
[32] E.g. Medical Justice, available here.
[33] National partnership agreement for immigration removal centre (IRC) healthcare in England 2022-2025, available here.
[34] Diane Taylor, ‘Self-harm incident nearly every day in UK immigration detention, data shows’, The Guardian, 27 November 2023, available here.
[35] Camille Corcoran, ‘Self-Harm Rates in UK Immigration Centres Soar Following Report That Found ‘Worst Conditions Ever Seen’’, Byline Times, 19 August 2024, available here.
[36] Ali McGinley and Adeline Trude, ‘Positive duty of care? The mental health crisis in immigration detention’, AVID and BID, 2012, available here and here.