A High Court legal challenge is to be launched in the UK by torture victims who have been held in immigration detention centres. The challenge will be brought against the UK Border Agency on the grounds of false imprisonment. A report has been published by Medical Justice, an organisation of asylum detainees and doctors, which claims that torture victims are routinely held in immigration detention centres. This is alleged to be a breach of Rule 35 of the 2001 Detention Centre Rules, the Home Office’s own detention rules. This rule requires doctors and health care professionals in immigration removal centres to report the case of any individual who they are concerned may have been tortured. If there is independent medical evidence that an individual has been tortured, this person should be released. The report shows that in 50 cases involving individuals who had medical evidence that they had been a victim of torture, only one was released under Rule 35.
Click here to read an article in the Guardian about the planned case.
In other UK news, an Afghan detainee has won permission to challenge the legality of his transfer to Afghan authorities following his capture by British forces. This challenge is on the grounds that he was subject to torture as a result of this transfer. His lawyers have said that after he was transferred, he was tortured into confessing that he was a member of the Taliban by the Afghanistan intelligence service and is now serving a six-year prison sentence. While granting permission to challenge the legality of the transfer, Justice Collins stressed that this does not mean that his case will necessarily succeed. Justice Collins further stated that all transfers of detainees to the Afghan authorities by British forces had been stopped ‘as part of an ongoing review’.