UK: A view inside Harmondsworth removal centre: death in custody

[Truth Seeker]

Read more here: Institute of Race Relations

Sergey Baranyuk forgotten at Harmondsworth

By Harmit Athwal

7 December 2006, 3:00pm

A recent inquest into the death of Ukrainian asylum seeker Sergey Baranyuk provided a glimpse of how asylum seekers are treated behind the closed doors of removal centres in the UK - detained, forgotten and slowly driven to despair.


Harmondsworth removal centre

Sergey Baranyuk travelled from the Ukraine to the UK and claimed asylum. He died awaiting voluntary removal. He was found hanged in a shower room at Harmondsworth removal centre near Heathrow airport in July 2004. His death sparked a night of disturbances at the centre and all of the detainees were transferred out of the damaged centre. More recently, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, issued an inspection report that was 'undoubtedly the poorest report we have issued'. It described an 'over-emphasis on physical security - which was more appropriate to a high security prison than a removal centre' where 'over 60 per cent of detainees said they had felt unsafe'. The report was also critical of suicide prevention policies, finding that: 'Most worryingly, a so-called action plan, to deal with problems identified by the inquiry into the recent self-inflicted death, had been shared with neither the suicide prevention team nor the staff in the centre. It was a purely bureaucratic exercise which had had no impact on the centre's practices', such inadequacies prevailed two years after the death of Sergey Baranyuk.

Fast-tracked

Sergey Baranyuk, 31, arrived in the UK on 24 May 2004 and claimed asylum the following day at Lunar House, Croydon. At his screening interview an immigration officer found his behaviour 'strange', he was seen speaking into his crucifix as if it were a phone. He was interviewed in Russian and was told that his claim would be dealt with in detention through the fast-track system at Oakington reception centre in Cambridge. The following day he was taken to Oakington.

On 27 May, Sergey was seen by a doctor at Oakington because of his 'disturbed behaviour' and, because Oakington was seen as less secure a decision was made to move him to Harmondsworth. On 28 May, Sergey apparently decided to withdraw his asylum claim and agreed to voluntary removal from the UK. He was certified fit to travel by a nurse and the following day this decision was endorsed by an immigration officer. At some point before his transfer (at around 1.30pm) he signed a disclaimer to withdraw his asylum application, however he was still transferred to Harmondsworth where he was incorrectly assigned to the fast-track system. At the inquest, it was pointed out by an immigration officer from 'MODCU' (management of detained cases unit) that once Sergey had signed the disclaimer on 29 May his case should have been transferred to MODCU.
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