A man has died while in custody at the Brook House, a migrant removal centre in the West Sussex area, the company responsible for its management has confirmed. Security firm Serco stated that the 26-year-old man died at the location, which lies next to Gatwick Airport, on Sunday. Migrant removal centres house asylum seekers, those who have been refused the right to remain in the UK, or those waiting for deportation subsequent to serving a sentence.
The Home Office has expressed condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. There presently remains no maximum period for which detainees can be held. A public inquiry into Brook House was initiated last year after the BBC Panorama program, following a whistleblower employed as a custody officer, conducted an investigation in 2017. The inquiry stated that a toxic culture was prevalent in which migrants endured inappropriate treatment and the utilization of degrading force.
The final report concluded that 19 incidents of mistreatment were recorded against detainees in Brook House over a period of five months in 2017, such as the utilization of dangerous restraint techniques, unnecessary infliction of pain on four detainees, and the forcible moving of detainees while naked or nearly so. Detainees in the centre were also found to have been subjected to racist, humiliating, and homophobic language. The centre was overcrowded, unhygienic, and there was constant aircraft noise from Gatwick, while the so-called zombie drug Spice was widely used.
The Gatwick Independent Monitoring Board, which oversees the Brook House centre, published a further report in August claiming “continuing failings”. In October, Kate Eves, who chaired the public inquiry, stated that the government had only agreed to meet one of her 33 recommendations. In response, the Home Office has suggested that it is committed to enhancing immigration detention facilities. Charitable group Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group compared Brook House to a prison and stated that the site is not an appropriate place for anybody to spend their final moments
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