The system of locking up migrants in detention centres must come to an end, doctors have warned.
There are currently around 3,500 people locked in prison-like immigration removal centres at any one time.
The British Medical Association (BMA) published a report on Monday entitled, “Locked up, locked out—health and human rights in immigration detention”.
It draws on the experiences of Alan Mitchell, a doctor who worked in a detention centre.
He warned that detention can worsen or contribute to mental illness and stop people getting access to care.
The report called for detention to be “phased out”, and in the meantime for clear limits on the length of time people can be detained.
Currently detention is indefinite—no one who is detained knows when they will get out.
John Chisholm, chair of the BMA’s ethics committee, said, “A fundamental rethink of current policies is required.”
Protesters were set to march on the Libyan embassy in central London on Saturday in protest at the brutality against black African refugees in Libya.
The demonstration was called by the African Lives Matter campaign.
Bombing by Britain, the US and France plunged Libya into chaos. European Union border closures force migrants trying to reach Europe to take desperate, dangerous routes.
They are to blame for the horrors taking place in Libya today.
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