Legal action is being mounted over claims that women at risk of deportation are missing out on vital in-person legal advice in a Consett detention centre.
The campaign group Women for Refugee Women have applied for permission to seek judicial review against the Home Office over practices it claims are taking place at Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), the new facility which recently opened on the site of the notorious Medomsley Detention Centre.
The group, alongside one individual claimant who was imprisoned at the site, claim women detained there have only been able to access legal advice remotely - a policy they say harms mental health and could affect the chances of a successful case.
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The centre is designed to hold people accused of having no right to remain in the UK before removal - but detainees may wish to appeal against attempts to remove them. The Home Office says that the centre, which opened at the end of December 2021, had initially lacked in-person legal advice due to the pandemic, but now said face-to-face help was available "on request".
But the campaigners claim detainees have struggled to access this. In November, the government's Legal Aid Agency cancelled its bid to find legal firms to set up a specific scheme to offer legal advice at Derwentside due to a lack of suitable applicants, saying "contingency arrangements" would be provided for the next six months.
Under these existing arrangements, the unnamed woman who is also making a legal challenge claimed it had been "really difficult" to access legal advice at the centre.
She said: "I spoke with many employees here about getting a lawyer, but they gave me excuse after excuse, always telling me to come back tomorrow.
"I was detained in Derwentside for around [one-and-a-half] weeks before a lawyer took on my case on a Friday afternoon, even though my removal directions were on Monday. I was really struggling and suffering. If I hadn’t received good legal representation, I would have been removed by now and I’m afraid that I would be dead.
"I believe that getting access to a lawyer is a right because no one else can hear you and help you like a lawyer can. A good lawyer listens to you and has the power to help. My biggest concern now is to be released from detention so that I can prepare my case properly.”
Agnes Tanoh, who was detained in a similar detention centre in 2012 and now acts as a spokesperson for Women for Refugee Women, said the experience had "traumatised" her and others who fled to the UK to escape "abuse, exploitation and persecution". For such women, she said, in-person meetings with representatives are vital.
Agnes said: "From my own experience I know how important it is to meet your solicitor and build trust so that you can tell them your story. Body language is so important. To see a warm and kind face is like a hug when you need it most.
"Imagine having to tell a stranger about the most horrific intimate violence you have suffered. It’s not right. Women seeking safety should be able to live freely in their communities and have access to justice.”
The campaign group are represented by Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Shalini Patel, a public law solicitor at the firm, said the location of the detention centre, in an area with fewer available law firms, would "severely restrict the detainees' fundamental right to access of justice", because survivors of human trafficking or gender-based violence may find it difficult to talk about what has happened to them, especially over the phone.
The challenge will draw on a report from Dr Juliet Cohen, an independent forensic physician.
She said: “I have clinical experience of assessing many women who are survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence. Since the pandemic I have had to make some of these assessments remotely, by telephone or video-link. Their traumatic experiences are often very difficult to disclose, and survivors may have poor mental health as a result of their experiences.
"Their mental health may become worse by the effect of their being detained, and this deterioration in mental health may then further affect their ability to disclose. I have no doubt that a remote assessment runs the risk of being partial and incomplete.”
Alphonsine Kabagabo, director of Women for Refugee Women, added: “For eight years we’ve stood alongside women seeking asylum who have been locked up in detention to call on the Home Office to end this harmful practice.
"We’ve worked with hundreds of survivors of rape, torture and trafficking to document how detention has retraumatised them. The Home Office hasn’t listened. Instead, they’ve opened a new detention centre for women in an even more remote location and without adequate legal advice provision in place. We can’t stand by and let this harm go on so we are taking the Home Office to court.
"Women seeking safety in the UK should be supported to rebuild their lives in the community."
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre opened during a global pandemic and our priority throughout has been to take proportionate steps to ensure the safety of residents and staff.
“Individuals have always been able to contact their legal representatives easily by telephone, email and video call – and also receive 30 minutes free advice through the legal aid scheme.
“Meetings in-person are also now able to take place on request.”
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