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Asylum Seekers

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, which I will return to in my closing remarks. I was making the point that, although the Home Office has asked for this dossier of 200 cases, there are difficulties in passing these cases on, because the victims are worried that they will come to harm if they report what has happened to them. However, the campaigning groups are trying to get permission from the victims to pass on the cases. The other issues that the campaigning groups have identified in reporting all these assaults, apart from the victims' fears, are difficulty with investigation, because the relevant CCTV footage would have been wiped; potential witnesses being dispersed; and difficulties in contacting those witnesses. There have been cases where witnesses of these types of assaults on planes have been intimidated by removals officers. Anne Owers, Her Majesty's chief inspector of prisons, has examined detention centres and one of the points that she made in a report last year was that we are dealing with failed asylum seekers"““as though they were parcels, not people, and as parcels whose contents and destination were sometimes incorrect.””" In fact, there are more controls and checks on the removal of livestock from this country than there are on the removal of failed asylum seekers. Earlier, I spoke about the culture of targets and the contracting out of this removal service. Of course, among the problems of contracting out are the lack of accountability and the level of training. I am afraid that the annual report of the Border Immigration Agency's complaints audit committee sheds light on the fact that the Home Office is still not dealing with complaints in a systematic or fair way. This afternoon, I would like the Minister to respond to a number of points. First, when will they implement the recommendations of that committee? Secondly, what training do removals officers receive, particularly in safe methods of restraint? Thirdly, what are the specific targets that are given to private companies? For instance, in one of the cases that I have spoken about earlier, the officer involved said that staff would not get paid unless they removed the woman to Cameroon. So what are the specific targets that private companies are given and how do these affect their work? Fourthly, what is the follow-up of failed asylum seekers that are removed, to find out what happens to them and whether they are subject to violence? Finally, do Ministers have the figures on how many occasions airlines have refused to take failed asylum seekers because they are concerned about some of the scenes taking place on their planes? So here we are, on the verge of the Christmas holiday. This is not the most cheerful of subjects and, as I said, it is not a subject that most of the public are too concerned about. However, it seems to me that, in trying to construct an immigration system that is firm and fair, the way that that system treats some of the most vulnerable people in it is important. Earlier in this Session, I used the opportunity of a debate in Westminster Hall to draw attention to the plight of children in detention. This afternoon, I want to ask the Minister to give the House some assurances that, just because somebody is a failed asylum seeker and they have to be forcibly removed, they will not be subject to abuse, violence and treatment that is unbefitting of a country that is meant to be a beacon of human rights in western Europe.