Children held for over 12 hours at ‘grubby’ Luton airport in immigration detention, prisons inspector says

Children have been held for over 12 hours in “grubby and crowded” immigration detention rooms at Luton airport, often with adults they do not know, the prisons inspectorate has found.

HM chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, found that Luton airport was “unable to cope” with the demands placed on it from immigration enforcement. The airport had the busiest detention facility of any airport, receiving more detainees than Heathrow, in part because of the high number of flights going to and from Eastern Europe, the inspector said.

“We were particularly concerned to find that children were placed in crowded holding rooms with unrelated adults,” the inspector’s report found.

They described the small holding rooms at Luton and Stansted airports as “grubby and crowded” and said that Luton was “unable to provide decent conditions for the number of detainees it held”. The short-term holding rooms at the busiest UK airports are managed by service company Mitie Care and Custody, with local border force overseeing the operation.

Between June and November 2023, 2,898 people were detained at Luton. Over 2000 people were also held separately at each of the Heathrow terminals.

Nearly 16,000 people were detained at airports across the UK in that period, with the most common nationalities being Romanian, Indian, Brazilian, Bulgarian and Colombian.

1,281 of these were accompanied children and 149 were unaccompanied children. Both groups had been detained for an average of 6.5 hours, which HM chief inspector said was too long. 20 lone children had been held for over 12 hours at either Luton, Stansted, Gatwick, Heathrow or Manchester.

Six children who were travelling with an adult had been also been held for more than 24 hours at a UK airport.

However the chief inspector found that there may be some cases where it was safer for the child to stay in detention.

HM chief inspector came across a case of a 15-year-old girl who had arrived at an airport with a 31-year-old man. She initially described him as her boyfriend, but then said he was her cousin.

She had been known to social services as she had stayed at her cousin’s address on a previous visit to the UK, when she had attended hospital due to a miscarriage. The police had previously taken no action because they wrongly believed that her pregnancy had been conceived in a country where the age of consent was 14.

The man was allowed into the UK but the 15-year-old girl was detained as an unaccompanied child, with referrals made to children’s services. However, despite the worrying situation, social services said they would not help her and, rather than holding the girl until the next day, border force let her go home to her cousin’s address.

The next day police and social services visited the child at her cousin’s home - she was taken into care and the cousin was arrested for trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The inspector also raised concerns about varying rates of child safeguarding referrals at different airports.

In the previous six months, over a quarter of detainees in airports across the country have been held for more than 12 hours, and nearly 600 people were held for more than 24 hours.

A London Luton Airport spokesperson said: “The requirement to upgrade and expand the existing custody facility was first discussed in 2023. We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Justice and remain ready to move forward with the project when they are in a position to do so".

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We work at pace to ensure detention in holding facilities is for the shortest time possible and prioritise the processing of children and vulnerable people. Individuals in detention are held in safe and decent conditions, and we have improved facilities and medical support in recent years. We have already taken action to address some of HMIP’s recommendations and will continue working closely with the Inspectorate to deliver further improvements.”

A Mitie spokesperson said: “It is positive to see the report acknowledge the ‘sensitive and clear’ interactions between our colleagues and detainees as well as recognition of the ‘good working relationships’ between ourselves and Border Force. The safety and wellbeing of those in our care remains our priority and our focus on safeguarding has also been noted in the report. We are working closely with colleagues and the Home Office to ensure the good policies and practices we have put in place are offered consistently.”