Women who have survived sexual violence are still routinely being detained at Britain's notorious Yarl’s Wood Immigrant Removal centre,  according to new research.

This is despite the launch last year of a UK government policy that states adults who are “at risk,” and most likely to suffer physically or mentally as a result, should not normally be held in detention.

The Home Office introduced the “adults at risk” policy in September 2016, after concerns were raised about vulnerable asylum-seekers — including women who have experienced sexual and gender-based violence — being harmed by the detention process. 

But the charity Women for Refugee Women (WRW) has now released a report, entitled "We Are Still Here", claiming that the policy isn’t being properly implemented, and that the system is “failing” these at-risk women. 

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Researchers spoke to 26 women, all held at Yarl’s Wood, in Bedfordshire, between May and September this year — after the new policy had been launched — to explore how effective the policy was. 

Of the women — from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda — 16 were still being held at Yarl’s Wood, while 10 had been released into the community. 

Out of the 26 women interviewed, 22 were survivors of sexual or gender-based violence, including forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), and forced prostitution or trafficking. 

All said that they were depressed, and 23 women said their mental health had deteriorated while they were detained.

Almost half — 12 women — had thought about killing themselves while in detention, and two had attempted to kill themselves, both on more than one occasion.

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In the UK, more than 1,500 female asylum-seekers are detained in centres such as Yarl’s Wood every year. For many, they have no idea when they will be released. 

Of the women interviewed by WRW, 23 had been held in detention for a month or more; 19 had been held for three months or more. The women who was held longest, was held for just under eight months. 

But there are several key “problems” with the Adults at Risk policy, which the report says “is failing to safeguard vulnerable women and prevent them from being detained.” 

Specific points cited in the report include a lack of screening process to identify if someone is “at risk” before they are detained; survivors not being believed when they disclose their experiences, and struggling to provide evidence the Home Office will accept; and women being retained in detention even when their mental or physical health is deteriorating.

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“Our research shows that the new approach is not working to safeguard and protect women who are vulnerable, and prevent them from being detained,” wrote report authors Gemma Lousley and Sarah Cope. “As one woman we spoke to put it: ‘There are many vulnerable women in Yarl’s Wood — we are still here’.” 

One of these women is Miriam (not her real name), from East Africa, who was forced into marriage in her home country and abused physically and sexually by her husband and his friends. 

She fled to the UK, but was arrested for travelling on a fake passport and was sentenced to six months in prison. After being released from prison, she was taken to Yarl’s Wood, where she was held for nearly five months. 

“Yarl’s Wood is a secret, torturing place. They take you there in a van with no windows; you don’t know where you are going, and when you get there, you cannot get out,” she told WRW. 

“I was screened by healthcare when I arrived at Yarl’s Wood, but it was just a case of being asked what medications I was on,” she continued. “I didn’t have the opportunity to tell them about all the things I had been through; they didn’t ask me anything about this at all.” 

She added: “If you ask me what’s worse, prison or Yarl’s Wood, I say Yarl’s Wood. You don’t know what you’re doing. You wonder if you are safe… I just felt like there was no respect for me, as a human, at all.” 

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Another woman, Vivian (not her real name), from West Africa, experienced FGM as a young girl before being abandoned by her parents, because they believed she was cursed. After later getting married, she was forced into prostitution by her husband. 

While the Home Office believed that she was a survivor of gender-based violence, the report states, Vivian was held in the centre for six months before being released in August 2017 to continue her asylum claim. 

“I wasn’t really sleeping or eating at all, and I was having flashbacks about what had happened to me,” she said. “Sometimes it felt like I was suffocating, as if the walls were closing in. I had thoughts about killing myself.” 

She added: “Sometimes, when other women were being removed and we were locked in our rooms, you could hear them through the doors, shouting and screaming. I will never forget that.” 

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Yarl’s Wood came to national attention in March 2015, when Channel 4 News released undercover footage that was filmed in the centre over a number of months which showed staff making racist and sexist comments about the women held there. 

Women also described the loss of privacy and dignity that they had experienced in the centre, with male staff seeing them washing or dressing while they were on constant supervision through risk of self-harm. 

In August 2015, it was branded one of the worst detention centres in the UK. In a damning report, the UK chief prisons inspector, described it as a “place of national concern.”

But in June 2016, the Home Office published new guidance on the treatment of women in detention — particularly setting out that male staff should never watch women on constant supervision. 

Authors Lousley and Cope agree that “there must be a process in which women’s claims can be fairly assessed.”

“However,” they write, “while this process is happening we believe that women should be treated with dignity, and in a manner that allows them to begin to rebuild their lives.” 

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As part of this, the report states that “it is now time for the government to move away from detention altogether, and develop community-based alternatives based on support and engagement.” 

“There are several advantages to this type of approach,” it continues. “Most important, supporting people to resolve their case in the community is more humane: it avoids the trauma and harm of detention, and promotes the wellbeing of those going through immigration and asylum systems.” 

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MPs including Caroline Spelman, the Conservative MP for Meriden, and Kate Osamor, the Labour MP for Edmonton, have also highlighted the necessity for a “transparent process.”

“The government needs a much more humane approach that offers alternatives to detention and assists refugees rather than treating them like criminals,” Osamor told the Guardian. 

A Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: “Detention is an important part of our immigration system, helping to ensure that those with no right to remain in the UK are returned to their home country if they will not leave voluntarily.”

They added: “We operate on a presumption against detention, and the adults at risk policy aims to improve our approach to identifying individuals who may be particularly vulnerable to harm in detention. When people are detained, this is for the minimum time possible, and the dignity and welfare of those in our care is of the utmost importance.”