An inspection of immigration short-term holding facilities (STHFs) run by UK authorities at French ports found improved facilities and respectful care by detention staff, but also identified serious concerns about some aspects of the detainees’ experience.

There are two STHFs in Coquelles, within the secure perimeter of the Eurotunnel, one at Calais sea port and a fourth facility at Dunkerque. Border Force identifies clandestine travellers and those to be refused entry before they leave French territory.

Inspectors from HM Inspectorate of Prisons and their French counterparts inspected in November 2019. While all facilities had improved since a previous inspection in 2016, and detention staff were generally caring and helpful, the inspection found serious concerns around safeguarding and legality of detention.

The Coquelles tourist facility holds people travelling on coaches and cars. Around 270 people a month were detained there. A second holding room had been created for children and families to be kept separate from unrelated adults. The Coquelles freight facility holds people found hidden in commercial vehicles in the freight lanes. Approximately 30 detainees a month were detained in the freight holding facility, but an unknown number were also held in vehicles awaiting the arrival of the French border police, Police aux Frontières (PAF).

The Calais tourist facility is used to detain people travelling in cars and coaches boarding ferries to the UK. Detainees found in commercial vehicles in the Calais freight lanes are either transferred directly to PAF or held on vehicles, sometimes for considerable periods. Approximately 150 detainees a month were held in the Calais tourist facility. However, around 1,000 detainees had been held in escort vehicles in the three months before the inspection. The Dunkerque facility holds tourist and commercial travellers stopped at the border and about 160 detainees a month were held there.

All the detainees interviewed by inspectors were positive about their treatment by detention staff. However, a report on the inspection, published today, noted serious concerns about some practices at both the Coquelles freight holding facility and in the Calais freight lanes, where people were detained on escort vehicles. “We were concerned,” the report noted, “that Border Force could not tell us the legal authority under which these detainees were held.”

Border Force staff in most facilities were alert to the signs of trafficking and aware of their safeguarding duties. However, at Coquelles freight inspectors observed weak safeguarding practices for children. They met a 17-year-old boy with an old gunshot injury who had been detained from a lorry and appeared unwell. Border Force failed to take sufficient action to ensure that the child’s best interests were considered. The boy was not treated in accordance with the child safeguarding policies of either the detention contractor, Mitie Care and Custody, or Border Force.

The report concludes that “Border Force should ensure that children, injured detainees and those held in vehicles are treated safely, decently and in accordance with the law.”

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Notes to editors
1. The France-UK Borders short-term holding facilities inspection report published on 13 March 2020, can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website.

2. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent, statutory organisation which reports on the treatment and conditions of those detained in prisons, young offender institutions, immigration detention facilities and police custody. All inspections carried out by HM Inspectorate of Prisons contribute to the UK’s response to its international obligations under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). OPCAT requires that all places of detention are visited regularly by independent bodies – known as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) – which monitor the treatment of and conditions for detainees. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is one of several bodies making up the NPM in the UK.

3. The Contrôleur Général des Lieux de Privation de Liberté (CGLPL) fulfils the responsibility of the French government to establish a national preventive mechanism to independently inspect all places of deprivation of freedom, which arise from its status as signatory to the OPCAT.

4. The UK-run STHFs in France form part of the UK’s ‘juxtaposed controls’, under which the UK Border Force identifies clandestine travellers and those to be refused entry before they leave French territory. These juxtaposed controls are set out in two bilateral agreements: the Sangatte agreement and the Le Touquet agreement. We were accompanied on this inspection by monitors from the French National Preventive Mechanism, Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté (CGLPL).

5. There are two STHFs in Coquelles within the secure perimeter of the Eurotunnel site and one at Calais sea port. All three are managed by the private contractor Mitie Care and Custody. A fourth facility in Dunkerque is managed by Eamus Cork Solutions (ECS).

6. This unannounced inspection took place between 25 and 27 November 2019.

7. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons on 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk, if you would like more information. Please contact the Home Office for their comment on 0300 123 3535.