HIV Patients made Prisoners

posted: 03/05/2011

NHS consultants say that security measures imposed by the UK Border Agency have turned Hillingdon hospital’s HIV clinic into a prison.
Hillingdon hospital in west London, is the nearest to Heathrow airport, and some of the people with HIV that it treats are detained at nearby immigration removal centres, who are brought to the hospital for treatment.
 

Patient cuffed to guard

The problems began when an immigration guard who had handcuffed a patient to him refused to remove the handcuffs so the man could be treated in privacy. When the guard refused to uncuff the man the doctors refused to treat him and made a formal incident report to the hospital’s medical director. That’s a serious formal complaint, and it concerns inhuman and degrading treatment.
 

Clinic windows barred - a prison for all
Officials from the UK Border Agency then fitted restraints on the windows at the hospital's sexual health clinic to ensure that detainees could not escape.
HIV specialist Ben Holden, a consultant at the hospital, said: "The unit is now a prison for us all. Our windows only open two inches but UKBA have installed chunky locks on them. We were told they would bring removable window restraints but these are permanent.
 

No attempts to escape
"No detainee has ever absconded or attempted to abscond. As doctors we believe that to keep immigration detainees restrained or locked in is discriminatory. I don't want to be part of a process that treats people in a less than human way."
Doctors are angry that immigration detainees who have committed no crime, approximately half of whom are later released, are treated in this way.
 

Deported without needed HIV drugs
An audit conducted at Hillingdon hospital also revealed that none of the detainees removed from the UK were dispatched from the UK with a full three month supply of anti-retroviral drugs (in accordance with British HIV Association / National Aids Trust guidelines). They left without an adequate tide-them-over drug supply because in many cases doctors at the hospital are not told by UKBA before people are removed from the UK. UKBA frequently cancel clinic appointments and some HIV-positive patients were removed before they were even seen at the hospital.
 

British HIV Association 'disappointed'

Professor Jane Anderson, chair of the British HIV Association, said: "BHIVA and the National Aids Trust have developed advice on appropriate HIV treatment and care for people in the immigration removal system, and we are disappointed to hear that this advice is not always being followed. We want to see the highest standards of care for everyone with HIV in the UK. Any factors that make the provision of high quality clinical care difficult give us cause for concern."
 

Emma Ginn, co-ordinator of the charity Medical Justice – which recently published Detained and Denied, a report cataloguing examples of poor medical treatment of HIV-positive detainees in the UK – said: "Along with the potentially lethal medical abuse they suffer in detention centres, detainees are suffering sub-human conditions in hospital."
 

Window bars excused
The UK Border Agency said: "We have agreed the installation of window locks for detainee treatment with Hillingdon hospital and are working with them to address the concerns now raised. Detainees are only handcuffed when absolutely necessary and they are not handcuffed during treatment.”
"The welfare of detainees is important but this must always be balanced with the security of the detainees and the public. Detainees have round-the-clock access to healthcare services to discuss their medication needs."
 

Hospital’s story
A spokesman for the Hillingdon hospitals NHS foundation trust said: "The UK Border Agency has told us that they do not believe our open ward environment is suitable for the treatment of individuals who may be failed asylum seekers and under restraint. However, a large proportion of the patients who are brought to our sexual health department by the agency are later discharged into the community and are not subject to the criminal law.
"We have agreed a temporary measure with the Border Agency to put discreet bars on windows in the unit, but we are continuing to negotiate an agreement with the agency that will offer a solution that allows us to treat all our patients with respect."
 

George House Trust would point out that Hillingdon hospital has allowed the UKBA to fit restriction devices onto its hospital clinic windows. It was under no legal obligation to treat all its sexual health clinic patients and staff in this way. And handcuffing patients is very rarely justifiable and hospitals must always consider alternatives or risk legal action under the Human Rights Act.

The NHS Constitution seems to have been ignored by the hospital - it says 

"You should always be treated with dignity and respect, in accordance with your human rights. This means, for example, that your right to privacy should be respected."

Complaining is far more difficult for people using Foundation Trusts like Hillingdon Hospital – there is no independent body to represent patients and help with complaints, Hillingdon’s website won’t even let you download its complaints leaflet and you will wait many months for the Ombudsman to deal with any complaint.
 

NHS complaints advice 
 

Source

Medical Justice Is Open

posted: 23/12/2010

During Christmas and New Year, (Thursday 23 December to Sunday 2 January, inclusive) Medical Justice staff will provide emergency cover of their phone, fax and email. Medical Justice campaign for decent healthcare for immigration detainees.
 

Contacting Medical Justice  over Christmas and New Year

Referrals

General inquiries
 

Phone      0207 561 7498
Fax           08450 529370

They may not be able to do very much and they ask people to only contact them for help where this cannot wait until they reopen for normal service on 3rd January.

They are very grateful to the doctors and lawyers who have very generously volunteered to support staff and detainees during the holiday period.

Medical Justice

HIV and Immigration Conference

posted: 28/10/2010

George House Trust invites professionals to our 26 November conference on Working with HIV positive people subject to immigration controls. This is on Friday 26th November 9.30am - 4.30pm at George House Trust, Manchester.
 

The frequent changes to asylum legislation and policy make it difficult to keep on top of the issues and offer your clients the best advice or most effective practice.
 

Living with HIV adds a further layer of complexity to immigration and asylum applications and appeals. Those living inside the immigration and asylum system are confronted with issues such as poor housing, poverty, alienation and fear.
 

Creative Solutions

The aim of this day is to

• demystify terminology and systems 
• to equip workers with a working understanding of the systems and legislation
• share approaches that effectively support this client group
• suggest creative solutions for professionals to adopt.
   

Speakers include:

• Ruth Heatley, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit - The Asylum Process; Application and Support Systems
• Daniel Murphy – George House Trust Service and Development Manager - HIV and Immigration, including Migrants' Rights to HIV Treatment
• Boaz Trust - Destitution Realities and Support
• Refugee Action - Leave to Remain and Legacy. Life after Asylum

Conference Programme

Cost and Bookings

£40 for Voluntary Sector agencies, £60 for Statutory Sector. If you would like to come but are unable to pay please contact us

To book a place on this course please contact Nathan Perry 0161 274 4499

For more information or specific access / disability requirements contact Daniel Murphy 0161 274 4499
We are 5 -10 minutes walk from Manchester Piccadilly station Map

Court Action to End HIV Immigration Detention

posted: 31/08/2010

The campaign to end the locking up of people with HIV in Immigration Detention centres, like Yarls Wood, is now moving to the Court of Appeal.
 

This follows a judge’s decision to turn down three test cases heard at the High Court.
 

The Judge decided that the Home Secretary's policy that people who are "suffering from a serious medical condition" should not be in immigration detention except for very exceptional cases does not normally apply to people living with HIV. In particular, the judge decided that whilst HIV is  a serious medical condition, the three HIV+ claimants were not "suffering", because their HIV treatment was working well enough.
 

Detained almost three years
One of the three people has now been in immigration detention for close to three years, (since October 2007) and the other two, since November 2008 and August 2009.
 

The court summed up their case like this:
"Each of the three claimants is HIV positive. They have been subject to immigration detention. The length of detention in each of their cases is different. For each, the stage of their illness and the degree of symptoms associated with it has varied over time. What is common to each ... is that the management of their condition has been adversely affected by their detention and by the management failings by the Secretary of State and those operating immigration detention on her behalf. The effect of this ... has been to put their health in jeopardy in ways that could have serious long term consequences for their ability to survive in the United Kingdom or in their home countries when or if they are removed."
 

Judgement
The judge decided aginst the three people. "It almost goes without saying that the liberty of persons is jealously guarded by the courts. Thus, the courts will scrutinise closely immigration detention to ensure that it is in accordance with the legislative purpose and that, generally speaking, the Secretary of State complies punctiliously with her policy on the matter.
 

“At some point, the treatment of those with HIV status in immigration detention may be sufficiently mis-managed so that the person suffers and falls within paragraph 55.10 of the Enforcement and Immigration Guidance. That mis-management might also constitute a breach of ‘Hardial Singh’ principles, ….. , or of the standards laid down by the Strasbourg Court. In my view, however, on the facts of these cases those standards were not breached in relation to any of these claimants."
 

All three people are disappointed with the ruling and have told their solicitor to appeal the decision in the Appeal Court. The case is not likely to be considered by the Appeal Court for months.

The case is being dealt with by Louise Whitfield and Gareth Mitchell in PierceGlynn’s Public Law and Human Rights team.
 

Full High Court judgement is here
 

The Future of Immigration Legal Help

posted: 05/08/2010

Face the Facts on Radio 4 explores the tough problems effective community immigration and asylum advice organisations are facing from the government. Free immigration and asylum legal help is under threat from government policy and practice. The programme includes Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit who do so much to help many people living with HIV.

Immigration advice in crisis

An asylum seeker takes his own life after his lawyers go into administration; a man and his family are thrown into detention because they've unwittingly been given false papers by an unscrupulous immigration adviser; a woman who's fled torture but hasn't been able to see her children for years because of bungling lawyers.

Their experiences cost them money and heartache. But poor legal advice can cost all of us in the long run if wrongly advised clients end up appealing their decision, or people, who've been told incorrectly that they can stay, then have to be removed from the country at the taxpayers' expense.
 

Government cuts and changes imperil lives

Changes to the way legal aid is paid have made the system "unsustainable". Asylum lawyers can now wait years for legal aid payments to be settled.

John Waite talks to some of the hundreds of committed advisers who have been forced out of their jobs because they either can't make it pay - or can't do the job properly any more. And he asks the Legal Services Commission to justify a false economy and a failure of justice.

Listen Again

This Face the Facts programe (half an hour long) was broadcast this lunchtime (Thu 5 August) but it is repeated on Sunday 8 Aug at 9pm in the evening on BBC Radio 4

You can also Listen Now online

This article in the Guardian discusses the need for better decisions by the UK Borders Agency on asylum claims because poor intial decisions add to legal aid bills for appeals.