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UK Judge damns refugees treatment
23.5.2006
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23 May 2006
An indictment of the way Britain deals with victims
of overseas torture was delivered yesterday in a
High Court case that revealed how two people who
bore scars from beatings with hot irons and steel
wire were placed in a detention centre and denied
immediate medical attention.
The judge adjudicating in the case of a woman, 27,
from the Ivory Coast and a Turkish Kurdish man, 38,
said their treatment at the Oakington detection
centre reflected a "persistent and sustained
failure" to provide the minimum level of care to
which the Government has committed itself through
legislation. The regime at Oakington, Cambridgeshire
came under strong attack last year by the prisons
and probation ombudsman.
The Turkish Kurd arrived in Britain in April last
year with injuries which suggested he had a strong
case for refuge. He told immigration staff
immediately that he had "proof" on his body of
torture: swollen legs and hot iron marks on his
shoulders, sustained through a series of beatings
which took place from 1997 to 1999. The man was
listed for fast-track processing and sent to
Oakington, pending a decision. There, under
Detention Centre Rule 24, introduced in Parliament
in 2001, he should have been seen by a doctor within
24 hours.
But it was only after speaking of the "nightmare of
his tortures" and complaining of feeling unwell on 5
May last year that he was allowed to see a nurse.
The man was released after four days.
The woman was seen by a nurse at Oakington but it
took two days to examine her medically. She said she
had been diagnosed with Hepatitis B and had
miscarried due to mistreatment in prison. She also
gave a vivid description of being "walked on", spat
at and humiliated by tormentors who whipped her with
steel wire.. She was released from Oakington on 18
May last year.
Mr Justice Davis said in yesterday's judgment that
the failure to examine the two within 24 hours of
their arrival was "not a rare and regrettable
lapse". He told the court the failure to comply with
the Detention Centre Rules had been going on for
years and was "the culmination of a long-standing
state of affairs".
independent co.uk
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