A pioneering project based in Newcastle has found it is both more humane and less expensive to support vulnerable female asylum seekers in the community rather than putting them in detention centres.
The scheme, overseen by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, was delivered by refugee charity Action Foundation and funded by the Home Office.
The findings have now been published in a report, entitled Evaluation of the Action Access Pilot.
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The report was researched and compiled by Britain’s largest independent social research organisation, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
Commenting on the effectiveness of the pilot, NatCen’s report states: “Our evaluation found qualitative evidence that participants experienced more stability and better health and wellbeing outcomes whilst being supported by Action Access in the community than they had received while in detention.
"Evidence from this pilot suggests that these outcomes were achievable without decreasing compliance with the immigration system.”
Action Access was the very first government-funded ‘Alternatives to Detention’ (ATD) pilot in the UK.
The two-year project ran between 2019 and 2021 and supported 20 women asylum seekers in a community setting in Newcastle.
The majority had previously been detained at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire.
They lived in shared accommodation, received one-to-one support from Action Foundation support staff and were supported to access legal counselling.
Although it wasn’t a requirement of the pilot, the women also benefited from Action Foundation’s free English classes and its regular drop-in.
The NatCen evaluation said this provided “a more humane and less stressful environment" for pilot participants to engage in the legal review and make decisions about their future, compared with immigration detention.
Even when those decisions were difficult and participants had no legal case to remain in the UK, the pilot gave the participants space and time to engage with their immigration options.”
In November 2021, Derwentside, a new female only Immigration Removal Centre with a capacity of 80 in County Durham, opened.
But Chief Executive of Action Foundation, Duncan McAuley, said the Action Access evaluation clearly demonstrated that these women would be better served in a community setting.
“Time and time again we hear of individuals suffering in detention before being released to live in the community. In fact, 65% of those detained are subsequently released back into their community," he said.
The evaluation of Action Access also suggests that keeping people in the community is cheaper per participant per night than holding an individual in detention.
Mr McAuley said: “Indeed, it states that the ‘potential savings offered by extending the pilot…indicate that the cost of the Action Access pilot could be less than half the cost of holding an individual in detention.”
He said Action Foundation had found the experience of working with the Home Office Community Engagement Team on the Action Access pilot ‘a really positive and productive one’ and was encouraged that the Home Office had accepted all the report’s recommendations.
“There was a genuine collaborative relationship between the Home Office, UNHCR and Action Foundation and this unique partnership demonstrates a model of working that is both dynamic and effective.
"Importantly, it demonstrates the success possible if the Home Office is willing to replicate this approach in the future.
"If they are, Action Foundation would welcome the opportunity to work in partnership again,” Mr McAuley said.
“We continue to oppose the widespread use of immigration detention and are calling for alternatives to be immediately and sustainably rolled out, providing cost effective, humane solutions.
“While we recognise the need for some capacity in Immigration Removal Centres, it is shocking to see the Home Office investing millions of pounds in a new facility on our doorstep at Derwentside.
"Instead, we would love to see taxpayers’ money invested in alternatives, avoiding the huge personal cost to the individuals themselves.
“Why spend millions of pounds building and running a centre 15 miles down the road when we’ve demonstrated a cheaper, more humane alternative based in local communities?”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The public rightly expects us to remove those who have abused our hospitality and do not have the right to be here. Immigration detention is essential to enable this.
“Derwentside IRC will accommodate those who have been to found to have no right to remain in the UK and foreign national offenders while we prepare to remove them.
“Through our New Plan for Immigration we are fixing the broken asylum and immigration system to make it firm on those who seek to abuse it and fair on those most in need of our support.”
