Inside the UK’s most notorious immigration detention centre

Описание: Brook House near Gatwick airport was the subject of an independent inquiry after G4S guards were filmed abusing detainees in 2017. Now, The Independent has obtained stark written accounts from officers at the site that reveal chaotic conditions in which restraint and force are being used against vulnerable migrants – as campaigners warn of ‘widespread failures’. Home Affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft reports

Naked but for handcuffs, a waist restraint belt, and a towel to cover his modesty, a man waiting to be deported from the UK is carried by officers to his bed inside his new home – the country’s most notorious immigration detention centre.

Days later, a resident with a history of mental health issues is restrained after smashing up the television in his room and boiling kettles in a bid to flood his sleeping area.

On another day, specialist riot squad officers are scrambled to the site after a mentally unwell resident jumps onto the safety netting between the floors in an apparent attempt to take his own life.

These are typical scenes at Brook House, near Gatwick airport where violence, assaults, drug use and incidents of self-harm are an almost daily occurrence.

The controversial site, where conditions are modelled on a category B prison, houses foreign nationals who have served time in prison alongside small boat migrants and those who have overstayed visas, and was the subject of an independent inquiry after G4S guards were filmed abusing detainees in 2017. The inquiry found 19 incidents of credible breaches of human rights laws relating to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, with officers found to have choked, abused and forced migrants naked from their cells between April and August 2017.

The Independent has now obtained stark written accounts from officers working at the site that lay bare the crises they have witnessed inside and reveal how restraint and force are being used against vulnerable detainees – some of whom will spend months or years living at the site.

The reports of incidents, obtained through freedom of information (FOI) laws, reveal that force was used against migrants 31 times in July 2025, giving a snapshot of a typical month inside Brook House, where 2,424 were housed in the year to September.

Separate data obtained by The Independent through FOI shows the prison riot squad – the National Tactical Response Group (NTRG) – was called out to Brook House 18 times in 2024 and 8 times in 2025. This is significantly higher than any other immigration removal centre, which had seen the squad called out at a maximum once a year.

Charities and campaigners have now warned of continued “widespread failures” at the detention centre, with excessive force used on torture survivors and people who have lost mental capacity. Serco, which now runs the site, say they only use restraints as a last resort, and the Home Office say they review each incident.

The incidents include:

A mentally unwell resident flooding his room repeatedly and others attempting suicide in front of officers
Residents running at doors, head-butting windows, and one person attempting to bite staff
Some residents testing positive for the psychoactive drug Spice
A resident shouting “just kill me”, crying and fighting against restraints after being told that he would be removed from the country the next day
One resident awaiting a bed in a secure hospital being so unwell that he began to apparently hallucinate – babbling, shouting and pointing at parts of his room – while naked.

Full article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...


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