Since the 2024 General Election, we’ve seen a sharp escalation in enforcement activity aimed at increasing returns, with the Government boasting that they have achieved the highest removal rates of migrant and diaspora communities since 2018. According to their most recent statistics, the Government has removed 24,000 people since the general election with plans to spend between £179m and £392m over seven years on a “comprehensive service” to return those with negative decisions on their asylum claims.  

Neglected by these figures and headlines is the reality of what this process entails, and the harm caused to individuals targeted. One such element of the removal process is the use of immigration detention – i.e. the removal of someone’s liberty, without trial, for immigration purposes in a process which has been described by people detained as “mental torture.” 

A rise in enforcement and returns activity and the increased criminalisation of people seeking asylum has resulted in an increase in the use of detention. Conversely – and excluded from Government narrative – roughly one in two people held in immigration detention are released back into UK communities. In addition to the mental health impact, this can cause huge levels of disruption and uncertainty to the lives of those affected. Many face homelessness upon release from detention, caught up in a fragmented system and facing multiple barriers to safety and security. 

Voluntary and community-based organisations already form part of an essential safety net for those detained. However, last year, just six members from NACCOM’s frontline network of homelessness services told us they accommodated a person who has directly left detention.  

This raises important questions:   

➡️ What barriers prevent community organisations from better supporting people leaving detention?

➡️ How can we, as a network grounded in solidarity and dignity, raise awareness and build capacity to ensure people leaving detention can rebuild their lives safely, as part of our communities?

NACCOM has been working more closely with The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) – a network of visitor groups – to answer these questions. We have written up our learnings in this article and aim to start bringing our networks more closely together to improve understanding and collaboration to prevent homelessness and destitution amongst people leaving detention.    

Summary

Barriers: 

  • Lack of joined up working and understanding between accommodation providers and visitor groups of how they work.  
  • High demand on accommodation providers for their services, with long waiting lists for bed spaces.  
  • Referral criteria for accommodation providers are not readily available to visitor groups and/or omit people leaving detention.  
  • Accommodation providers feel ill-equipped to support people leaving detention.  
  • Some NACCOM members – particularly those who provide hosting schemes or shared housing – want to build established relationships before accepting a referral, preventing referrals straight from detention.   
  • Difficulties working with probation services (for people who have a previous conviction) to provide further information and approve addresses. 
  • Immigration detention centres commonly operate in isolated locations and people can be released to different parts of the country. This can make it difficult for visitor groups to stay in contact with people post-detention. And visitor groups may not have a good local knowledge of the place that the person they are supporting has been released to. 

Opportunities: 

  • Bringing AVID and NACCOM members together to build stronger relationships.  
  • Sharing of local knowledge between AVID and NACCOM members, including about the local authority and local services.  
  • Working with probation services to build stronger relationships. 
  • Training and information sharing on different types of accommodation and referral processes for AVID members. 
  • Training and information sharing on immigration detention, bail and post-detention support for NACCOM members.  

NACCOM and detention work 

In 2023-24, NACCOM members accommodated 1,257 people with no recourse to public funds (NRPF). Not having access to the welfare safety net increases the risk of destitution, homelessness, and exploitation, and can push people further away from the support they need. Crucially, if a person has NRPF because they don’t have legal status in the UK, they may be at risk of being detained and removed from the country.  

Although most people with NRPF accommodated by NACCOM members have previously been refused asylum, this is a very diverse cohort made up of individuals with very wide ranging, and often complex, circumstances and needs. In response, many NACCOM members will offer a combination of stable, safe accommodation and intensive one-to-one support, aiming to empower that person to regularise their status in the UK and move forward with their lives.  

Whilst many NACCOM members accommodate people with NRPF who may be at risk of detention, a far smaller number of members tell us that they explicitly work with and accommodate people after leaving detention. In fact, across 2023/24 just 26 people leaving detention were accommodated by the network, despite the fact that most people held in immigration detention are subsequently released, often without an offer of stable accommodation on the other side.   

We spoke to some NACCOM members, and attended AVID’s conference, bringing together the insights of those directly involved in this work and to get a better understanding of why this is, and what may be preventing people leaving detention from accessing these services.  

The AVID network 

Like NACCOM, the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) is a national network, rooted in local action and solidarity. Though smaller in size, AVID brings together 13 member groups – representing 500+ volunteer visitors –  who visit people in immigration detention in the UK. AVID members visit all the Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), Residential Short-Term Holding Facilities (RSTHFs) and several prisons where people are held under immigration powers. In 2023, collectively, the AVID network visited 6,200 people in detention (39% of people entering detention that year).  

Beyond providing solidarity inside detention, many visitor groups in the AVID network extend their support well beyond release. This includes signposting, guidance and peer-support groups, much of which was developed during COVID-19 pandemic, when mass releases from detention took place due to the lack of viable removal options and lockdown. Research with AVID members at the time highlighted ‘lack of mental health support and issues about protection of adult at risk in the post release’. Models of post-detention support vary from group to group. As one example, Beyond Detention – who visit people in Yarl’s Wood detention centre – support people for nine months after leaving detention, wherever they are placed in the country, providing continued contact, onward referrals and a variety of online courses and friendship groups.  

In recent years, however, there has been a drastic U-turn which has seen the use of immigration detention normalised as a tool of migration management. The use of detention has increased and is set to expand further despite calls from the sector and overwhelming evidence of the lasting harm caused by detention.  

Visitor groups in the AVID network have also seen a worrying rise in numbers of people being released into homelessness. It is now commonplace for groups to visit people in detention who are granted bail in principle but who remain detained simply because they do not have a release address – only to then be released suddenly and onto the street. It has become more difficult to access Home Office accommodation, exacerbated by the fact that it is difficult to find housing solicitors to provide representation.  

All of this has resulted in visitor groups looking for alternative accommodation and support solutions.  

Referral pathways between visitor groups and NACCOM members – the key challenges  

Lack of relationships

WWeWe realised that accommodation services and detention visitor groups often don’t have strong relationships, nor mutual understanding of their respective work. Some AVID members told us they were simply unaware of which accommodation services existed for the people they support. Others mentioned they lack time and capacity to support people into accommodation and build new relationships with providers, particularly for those that are volunteer-led or located in a different region.  

The lack of relationships is exacerbated by the fact that each accommodation provider will have specific referral criteria, and some may only accept referrals from specific charities. Accommodation providers may not necessarily put referral information on their website and will rely on having existing relationships with referrers.  

Without this mutual understanding, there’s a real risk that accommodation providers may lack familiarity with the immigration detention bail process, or the specific needs of those leaving detention. As a result, individuals can be unintentionally excluded from services by certain referral criteria, or services feel unequipped to adequately support those leaving detention on bail. Some NACCOM members told us that they are unwilling for their properties to be used as bail addresses, as they feel that would make their services and service users more vulnerable, for example to immigration raids. 

Capacity challenges

There is the strain of funding and capacity challenges, with long waiting lists and increasing homelessness putting pressure on bed spaces. This can lead to individuals judged to have a higher chance of success of a positive outcome in their immigration case being prioritised over those with particularly complex cases, or those on long routes to settlement.

The casework gap

AVID members highlighted that many people leaving detention don’t have a caseworker or solicitor. However, to accept a referral, many of our members – particularly those who do not have in-house legal casework services – will ask that a caseworker or solicitor is working with the individual already. This creates significant barriers for those trying to access safe accommodation after detention.  

Complex needs

Most accommodation providers are not set up to support people with complex needs. Mental health challenges are often worsened by time – and mistreatment – in detention. Unless adequate support and safeguards are in place, this can make accommodating individuals challenging, particularly in hosting schemes or in shared housing. Conversely – whilst it is true that detention has a serious impact on mental and physical health – there was also worry that accommodation providers may overly generalise, avoiding referrals from detention altogether without properly considering individual circumstances.  

Some members only accommodate people who they have had the time to get to know – often at least six months – giving them the confidence that they would not pose a risk to themselves or anyone they’re living with in shared housing or in a host household. They may therefore be reluctant to accommodate people directly from detention. However, the support that visitor groups provide varies. In some circumstances visitor groups will only have been able to meet people for limited periods of time, in a highly restricted environment, making it difficult for them to provide comprehensive information in a referral. 

Likewise, probation services may also not provide sufficient information to accommodation providers about the individual, and potential indicators of risk. More generally, members from both networks described differing relationships with probation services and difficulties in contacting probation officers. We heard how some probation services are more proactive in helping people leaving detention to find stable accommodation, whilst some can frustrate the process by not providing timely or complete information about a person. 

Geographical limitations

Many NACCOM members only work within a certain geographic area, but detention centres are often based in remote locations which are not necessarily near any services. Likewise, a small number of accommodation providers may accept self-referrals, but only via physical presentation at a drop-in. 

Difficulty staying in touch

Finally, on a practical level, AVID members told us that sometimes it can be difficult to contact individuals on leaving detention because they have been made homeless and have nowhere to charge their phone or cannot access maps because they don’t have a smartphone.  

Opportunities to strengthen partnerships 

It’s clear that there are various opportunities to develop referral pathways and closer collaboration between AVID members and the NACCOM network and help accommodation providers to make their referral processes more inclusive for to people leaving detention: 

➡️ Building stronger relationships between AVID members and the NACCOM network. Accommodation providers are more likely to accept referrals when they know the partner making the referral. Building positive relationships will enable visitor groups to better understand the needs of NACCOM members, and NACCOM members to better understand the needs of people leaving detention.  

➡️ Sharing local knowledge. Even where NACCOM members are unable to accept referrals, they have a wealth of local knowledge and may be able to share information with visitor groups of other support services which might help. Similarly, NACCOM members are likely to have a good understanding of the specific ways of working of their local authority which can help visitor groups to overcome challenges presented by different local authority processes and requirements.  

➡️ Working with probation services. Stronger relationships can help provide referral information to accommodation providers and to speed up the process for approving addresses. 

➡️ Trying alternative solutions, like hosting schemes. One NACCOM member runs a hosting scheme and an immigration detention visiting programme. With their infrastructure and experience in hosting schemes, they were able to support a former volunteer visitor to join a hosting scheme. They later hosted someone who had previously been detained, strengthening the hosting organisation’s awareness of immigration detention and demonstrating that hosting people leaving detention can be just as simple as hosting those with no experience of detention. 

➡️ Helping AVID members understand referral requirements of accommodation providers and the indicators of “risk” looked for by accommodation services. Referrals can be supported by detention visitor groups providing evidence of protective factors such as a reference from a charity that is supporting that individual; engagement with other services; and support networks. This will likely increase confidence amongst accommodation providers that a referral will result in a successful placement.  

➡️ Sharing information with AVID members about the range of accommodation providers in the NACCOM network. These include: specialist organisations such as those working with LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and gender-specific services, some of which have a more open referral process (as long as the criteria for their specialism area are met); members which support people with accommodation who have a previous conviction and what their requirements are; and members who accept referrals where there isn’t a caseworker or solicitor in place. 

➡️ Building AVID’s understanding of night shelters. This includes how they operate and their referral criteria. These services, although unable to provide more long-term support, may be able to offer emergency accommodation to people leaving detention. 

➡️ Sharing knowledge about the bail process. Accommodation providers need training to build understanding of the process of immigration detention to feel more confident in supporting people leaving detention.  

 

Next steps

As changes to the hostile and failing asylum and immigration system impact different cohorts of people who need support to avoid or alleviate homelessness, it’s vital that the sector keeps adapting. NACCOM aims to support our members to be at the forefront of this change so that member referral processes aren’t accidentally excluding people.  

In the coming months NACCOM will be working to raise knowledge of detention in our network; build connections with detention networks; and raise awareness and understanding amongst our network of the key actors in the detention space, such as visitor groups and anti-raids networks. We will continue to encourage councils to develop inclusive NRPF services, including investing in immigration advice. We are currently feeding into the Government’s rough sleeping strategy and campaigning for legal aid reform.  

By working together, we can create a welcoming society where people in the asylum and immigration system – including those affected by detention and enforcement practices – can rebuild their lives.