The authors examine recent research from the Institute of Race Relations, which documents the deaths of over 200 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who have lost their lives trying to reach the UK or in work-related accidents, as a result of racial attacks and, most often, as a result of self-harm, especially in detention centres.
221 of these deaths have been recorded in Harmit Athwal, Driven to Desperate Measures (London, Institute of Race Relations, September 2006). Details of these and subsequent deaths can be viewed on the IRR's website at <http://www.irr.org.uk>.
2.
Home Office, ‘Asylum Statistics: 3rd Quarter 2006’ (London, Home Office Research, Development and Statistics, October 2006), <http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfso6/asylumq306.pdf>. Tony Blair committed his government to ensuring that by 2005 the number of deportations would exceed the number of ‘unfounded applications’ each month. In November 2006, Home Secretary John Reid announced a plan to switch 440 police officers to immigration duties.
3.
Harmit Athwal, ‘A day in the death of an asylum seeker’, IRR News (21 June 2006), <http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/june/ha000027.html>.
4.
Harmit Athwal, ‘Should more be done to prevent suicides in immigration detention centres?’, IRR News (30 June 2005), <http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/june/ak000021.html>.
5.
See Medical Justice Network's website at <http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk>.
6.
Jo Garcia, Edward-Kennedy Nasho and Liz Peretz (eds), Voices from Detention II (Oxford, Barbed Wire Britain, 2006).
7.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, ‘Inquiry into the quality of healthcare at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, 20-24 February 2006’, <http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/aboutus/Yarlswoodhealthcarereport.pdf>. Sarah Cutler is quoted in Harmit Athwal, ‘Kenny Peter's inquest points to asylum failures’, IRR News (5 October 2006), <http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/october/ha000013.html>.
8.
Ibid.
9.
See Alan Travis, ‘Immigration removal centre like a high security prison, says inspector’, Guardian (28 November 2006). HM Inspector of Prisons, ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre 17-25 July 2006’.
10.
All the information on this case is taken from John Elliott and Zoe Brennan, ‘Focus: the ultimate sacrifice’, Sunday Times (24 September 2006) and Harmit Athwal, ‘Two asylum seekers took their own lives within 24 hours’, IRR News (21 September 2005), <http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/september/ha000021.html>.
11.
The detention of children has not been without its critics. HM Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, has called for the ‘complete overhaul’ of the policy of detaining children in an ‘intimidating environment’ and Amnesty International has criticised the practice as a breach of human rights. See also Harmit Athwal, ‘Mounting criticism of detention of asylum-seeking children’, IRR News (9 June 2005), <http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/june/ha000005.html>.
