What can visitors do?

Visitors can:

• Guide people in detention on where to seek information and advice on deportation appeals, including signposting to BID, their handbook and the Right to Remain handbook.

• Provide people in detention with information on what to expect, their rights and questions that they might ask their lawyer.

• Communicate with the person’s lawyer to ask for updates, with the person's consent that they would like this support.

• Make a referral to Medical Justice for a medico-legal report that can provide further evidence for their immigration case, for example if the person is a victim of trafficking or torture, or to support with “fit to fly letters” if you have concerns about the effect of boarding a flight on a person’s health.

• Assist people in detention in obtaining documentation/ records from within the detention centre such as requesting medical records (see more on how to do this in Access to Medical Information) from the Healthcare department or requesting decision letters that may be on file.

• Relay any concerns about the treatment of people detained (for example, use of force) or any other concerns about the systematic running of the detention centre to your co-ordinator so that they are aware of any ongoing issues and can take action accordingly. It may be possible to escalate this to AVID or to detention monitoring bodies.

• Provide people who want to return to their home with information of voluntary returns or facilitated returns scheme (for people who have a previous conviction). People in detention can no longer apply for Home Office financial assistance with their return, but if released from detention they may be able to do so.

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