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One migrant who had been returned to France under the UK’s flagship deal says he was screaming in pain as officers banged his head against a wall while trying to restrain him
Holly BancroftHome Affairs Correspondent Wednesday 26 November 2025 00:03 GMTComments
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Vulnerable migrants held in UK detention centres are routinely being handcuffed, with some detained for hours, a damning report has found.
Examples of unnecessary force included a 70-year-old small and frail man being handcuffed during a hospital visit, despite having no history of being disruptive, and another man subjected to rigid bar cuffs, a waist-restraint belt, as well as thigh and ankle restraints, for over four and a half hours.
Force and restraints are only meant to be used as a last resort, but inspectors at the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), who oversee prisons and detention centres, found this was being largely disregarded by immigration staff.
The IMB’s report, published on Wednesday, found that force had been disproportionately used against people recorded as vulnerable, and healthcare staff were not notified quickly enough when it did happen. In one case, it took staff more than four hours to tell medics that a man had been restrained despite him banging his head repeatedly on a wooden bed frame.
It said cases, such as those highlighted, were impacting people’s willingness to attend hospital appointments due to the stigma of being handcuffed.
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People held at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre at Gatwick respond to demonstrators from migrants rights groups protesting against plans to send migrants to Rwanda in June 2022. Brook House was subject to an inquiry after a 2017 Panorama investigation uncovered abuse by immigration staff. (PA)In another case, a man who was at risk of self-harm or suicide was restrained when he was moved from a detention centre to an airport for deportation. The man removed his trousers during the journey and was carried naked from the waist down onto the aircraft, soiling himself in the process. He screamed at the escorting staff and threw off a blanket meant to cover him up. Staff then took turns kneeling or standing on the seat in front to push his head against his own seat, the report found.
An enforcement officer threatened a detained migrant with pain in another case, with a review of the incident failing to acknowledge the threat. In another case, a staff member who used force against a migrant then conducted the review of the incident themselves.
Elisabeth Davies, IMB national chair, said: “The findings of this report are deeply concerning. For the use of force to be lawful, it must be necessary, reasonable, proportionate and justifiable, but what we are seeing is a system where restraint has become routine, oversight is weak, and the dignity of detained individuals is too often disregarded.”
Ms Davies warned that too little was being done to learn the lessons of the Brook House inquiry, which was launched after a 2017 undercover investigation by Panorama filmed shocking scenes of abuse against detainees.
“The Home Office is still not doing enough to prevent such failures from happening again,” Ms Davies said.
Kate Eves, who chaired the Brook House inquiry, told The Independent: “Two years after the findings of the statutory inquiry into abuse at Brook House, it is extremely concerning to see the same issues being identified. There should be no doubt that the excessive use of force, combined with a lack of robust safeguards, contributes to a toxic environment where mistreatment of vulnerable people becomes more likely.”
She said the IMB report “suggests that, despite reassurances, lessons have not been learned”.
A spokesperson for the charity Medical Justice, which supports people in detention, said the Home Office had “an inexcusable disregard for the safety of vulnerable people in its care”.
One man named Said, who the charity supported before his removal to France under the UK-France treaty, said belts were used to restrain him during his deportation.
He told the charity: “[Enforcement staff] started to open their bags and take out four different belts and they started to forcefully use them and tie me. They banged my head against the wall several times while I was screaming in pain, but they were not kind to me.
“The belt that was tied around my shoulders got stuck in my throat. I started screaming and saying I want to die, untie the belt from my neck, but they thought I just wanted to be let go.”
Gatwick immigration detention centre reported that almost all migrants taken to hospital appointments in 2024 and early 2025 were handcuffed, with inspectors finding restraint had become a “default rather than the exception”.
People were also being routinely handcuffed at Luton airport when they were escorted to removal flights.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Last week, the home secretary announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times which will make it easier to remove and deport migrants. As part of this, we are reforming human rights laws and replacing the broken appeals system.
“We will carefully consider the findings in the report. The Home Office reviews all incidents of use of force to ensure that techniques are used proportionately."
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