REPORT REVEALS WOEFUL NEGLECT IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRE

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Oct 2006

A report published by the Chief Inspector of Prison, Anne Owens, last week, has heavily criticised the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, saying that it was critically failing to meet the needs of those currently detained there.

The report focused in detail on the case of Enid Ruhango an asylum seeker from Uganda, who now lives in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, who went on hunger strike with another detainee Sophie Odogo to protest against their detention.

The report criticised Yarl's Wood for not being 'geared' to meet the needs of detainees held for long periods, and questioned the centre's handling of the hungers strike, saying that there was "no detailed clinical protocol" to manage such incidences.

Commenting on the report Ms Ruhango's MP, Greg Mulholland, said:

"This report reveals that the basic needs of many of those detained within Yarl's Wood have been woefully neglected, particularly those with psychiatric problems.

"People like Ms Runhango held at Yarl's Wood have been woefully neglected and their dignity has been trampled upon.

"But this is not an isolated problem; the entire Immigration and Nationality Directorate is a shambles and this can be laid entirely at the fault of ministers abandoning everything to meet failed asylum seeker targets set by Tony Blair and Number 10.

"There needs to be an urgent and total rethink of immigration detention; The Government cannot ignore this problem any longer."