Albanians volunteering to be repatriated under a fast-track deportation deal are being detained unnecessarily for several weeks at taxpayers’ expense, the prisons watchdog has found.
HM chief inspector of prisons also found that staff did not know about the vulnerabilities of detainees held in deportation centres before being removed to Tirana, and some were not being given privacy while using the lavatory.
The Home Office signed a “landmark joint communique” with Albania in December 2022 to expedite the removals of Albanian nationals it says are in the UK illegally back to their home country.
It followed a rise in the number of Albanians crossing the Channel. In 2022, they accounted for more than a quarter of the 45,774 who reached the UK in small boats.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said: “Inspectors found that too many [Albanian detainees] waited in detention for several weeks despite being willing to go, and the information-sharing about vulnerability was not good enough.”
The findings were based on an inspection in December that examined the removal of 73 Albanian detainees being taken from London to Tirana, 50 of whom were returning voluntarily.
They were transported with 129 escort staff, two paramedics and two interpreters and had travelled from the immigration removal centres (IRCs) at Brook House, Colnbrook, Harmondsworth, Tinsley House and Yarl’s Wood, as well as from the residential short-term holding facility at Swinderby, in Lincolnshire.
Most detainees told inspectors that they had not consulted a solicitor, having opted for a voluntary return. “Some were frustrated that they had had to wait in detention for more than a month before a flight was arranged, despite accepting removal at the earliest stage,” the report said.
Information about vulnerability and risk was not consistently recorded and was not always communicated clearly to escort staff or paramedics, inspectors found.
“Staff were generally unaware of identified adults at risk … Recording of risk and health information in person escort records was often poor,” inspectors wrote.
Complaints were made that detainees were not allowed to use the toilet without being observed.
“They were allowed to use the toilet before they boarded the coaches, but at both Colnbrook and Harmondsworth IRCs, escort staff held the toilet door ajar for some individuals, in some cases by jamming a foot between the door and door frame.
“This allowed those outside to see inside easily and was both demeaning and unnecessary, especially because a large proportion of detainees were returning voluntarily,” the report said.
Rishi Sunak has praised the deportation deal with Albania under which thousands have been returned to their country of origin.
Some Albanian criminals are being released from jail a year early and given £1,500 if they agree to be deported.
