Calls to end British Home Office's indefinite immigration detention

<p>A British parliamentary committee has called for an end to indefinite detention in immigration centres and for detention to be authorised independently of the Home Office.</p> <p>According to the Guardian, around 27,000 people a year are detained in connection with immigration and are usually held without being given a date for release or deportation.</p> <p>“Indefinite detention causes distress and anxiety. [It] can trigger mental illness and exacerbate mental health conditions,” a highly critical report by parliament’s joint committee on human rights (JCHR) has said.</p> <p>“The lack of a time limit … reduces incentive for the Home Office to progress cases promptly, which would reduce both the impact on detainees and detention costs.”</p> <p>The UK is the only European country that does not impose time limits on immigration detention.</p> <p>In the last two years, at least two Tamil refugees have successfully sued the Home Office for wrongful detention during their asylum application process.</p> <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/07/mps-peers-committee-end…">See more from the Guardian.</a></p>