Britain's immigration system is broken. More than that, it is so biased, confused and politically troubled that the Coalition Ministers seldom want to speak about it. Nobody can deny that Britain is an open society, and our economy thrives on the energy of immigrants and the taxes they pay.
But the undercover investigation by Channel 4 in Yarl's Wood Immigration removal centre has been the prove of this government's failing values. It revealed a culture of racism, sexism and threats of violence in Britain's most notorious detention centre, where footage revealed prisoners throwing themselves off the staircase to commit suicide.
Responding to this report released from a cross party-group of MPs which called for an end to the indefinite detention of migrants and to the suspension of two member of staff from the Yarl's Wood detention centre Steve Symonds Amnesty UK’s Refugee and Migrant Programme Director, said: “It’s clear that the immigration detention system in this country is used, as today's all-party parliamentary group report says, disproportionately and inappropriately...
“The Channel 4 exposé of Yarl’s Wood gave a grim glimpse of the sort of treatment people locked up in detention are subjected to and it was truly shocking...
“Every year tens of thousands of people are held in these centres for the convenience of the administration of a system that has lost sight of the human lives at its heart.
“The reform of this system, promised today, is long overdue.”
