Staff at a Home Office immigration detention centre pinned England flags to their uniforms while guarding migrants, a report from the prisons and detention watchdog has revealed, raising concerns about intimidation and professional standards.
The Independent Monitoring Boards’ (IMB) national annual report, published on Wednesday and based on 127 annual reports, found that the wearing of St George’s Cross flags – which have become closely associated with far-right and anti-migrant groups – risked perceptions of bias. “The board felt this risked perceptions of bias or even intimidation among detained people, especially in the light of recent immigration protests in which flag displays were prominent,” said the interim IMB chair, Jane Leech. “At a minimum the board concluded it raised concerns about professional standards and workplace culture.”
“Staff at an immigration detention centre wore England flags while guarding migrants, a watchdog report reveals.”
The report was damning about the state of prisons, immigration detention centres and young offender institutions across England and Wales. It painted a picture of men, women and children held for long periods in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, often living alongside vermin. Inmates are not fed properly, have trouble accessing medical assistance, and many have no opportunity to learn a skill or participate in education. Gangs appear to control entire wings, roaming cells to collect drug debts with threats of violence. Toilets remain broken for weeks. “Failures once regarded as serious are at risk of becoming normalised,” the report concluded.
Cases highlighted included a man in HMP Garth, Lancashire, who died in a cell fire after the alarm apparently failed to sound; a man at HMP Bullingdon, Oxfordshire, warned he might lose his leg after being bitten during a spider infestation; and a spike in self-harm at HMP Foston Hall in Derbyshire during hot weather when managers lacked funds to buy fans.
The report also provided the first watchdog overview of the Home Office’s controversial one-in-one-out scheme to forcibly return small boat arrivals to France. Of particular concern was the unlawful detention of children: under the scheme’s terms, lone children must not be detained, yet at Gatwick immigration removal centre 12% of those held under the scheme were children.
Leech said the report revealed “a troubling picture of systemic failings across immigration detention that continue year after year, exposing detained people to avoidable harm while falling short of the minimum standards that are meant to be upheld in detention.”
The crisis predates Keir Starmer’s government. On entering office in summer 2024, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood introduced early release schemes, warning that the entire criminal justice system was close to collapse and “without prison places, criminals might act with impunity.” The threat of the prison population exceeding the maximum of 89,800 continues to haunt the Ministry of Justice, even after thousands of jury trials were ditched and magistrates given powers to try more serious cases.