North: Probe into conditions facing asylum seekers

Human Rights Chief Commissioner Professor Monica McWilliams will begin a probe today into the conditions facing immigration detainees in the North.

She is to meet asylum seekers and migrants being held at detention centres in Belfast.

The visits were arranged amid concerns over conditions, right to legal advice, healthcare and diet.

Professor McWilliams said: “Northern Ireland is the only place in the UK where immigration detainees are held in prison as a matter of course.

“The decisions taken by immigration officers to detain asylum seekers appear to be arbitrary, inconsistent and, on a number of occasions, seem to have breached international and domestic human rights norms.”

According to the Northern Ireland Prison Service five men are currently being held as immigration detainees in a unit of the old Crumlin Road jail in north Belfast.

Another five women have been sent to Hydebank Wood jail in south Belfast.

The Commission has pledged to investigate how and when decisions to detain people are made, why detainees are held in prison even if they have been convicted of no crime, and how complaints are resolved.

Ms McWilliams is to lead a delegation to the Crumlin Road complex, while other staff will interview women at Hydebank Wood.

As well as seeking out opinions, the Commission has requested information from the Home Office in an attempt to achieve improvements to the system in the North.

“This is an extremely important issue which we plan to investigate,” Professor McWilliams insisted.

“We hope that our research will contribute to an informed debate in Northern Ireland on how to improve conditions for asylum seekers and migrants in Northern Ireland.”