Detention Action: Supporting migrants with complex needs in the UK
The organisation
Detention Action is a UK-based charity that seeks to defend the rights and improve the welfare of people in immigration detention by combining support for individuals with campaigning for policy change. Detention Action works in a number of Immigration Removal Centres in the UK, as well as with people held under immigration powers in London prisons.
The project & main goals
Since 2014, Detention Action has been running the Community Support Project (CSP), an alternative to detention scheme that works with men who have experienced or are at risk of long-term immigration detention. The participants in the project all have significant barriers to removal.
The project aims to address the particular needs and issues raised by each participant and works with them to create a transition plan, setting out goals and actions. Ongoing assistance is provided by caseworkers which takes into account the varied emotional and practical needs of each participant, including support in consequential thinking techniques and advocacy with statutory and non-statutory bodies on their behalf.
The Community Support Project aims to reduce the risk of absconding and reoffending of young male ex-offenders with barriers to removal, assisting them to meet the conditions of their release and avoid long-term detention. Through one-to-one case management, participants develop skills and confidence to stabilise their lives, participate in the community, and maintain contact with the authorities. Ultimately, the project sets out to show that, when case management principles are followed, alternatives can work for even the most complex situations: people with previous convictions and barriers to removal.
Resources
To learn more about the Community Support Project, click here.
To read Detention Action’s flagship report on immigration detention and ATD in the UK, ‘Without Detention’, click here.
