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About us

Detention Action is a human rights charity committed to defending the rights and improving the welfare of people held by the government in immigration detention.

Since 1993, we have been challenging injustice in the UK’s detention, deportation, and asylum systems while providing critical frontline support to people in detention through our Casework Service.

We believe that the majority of people currently detained by the government do not need to be held and that more humane, efficient and cost-effective alternatives to detention are available. 

We believe that people should only be detained as a last resort and when all alternatives to detention have been explored.  Detention should be used for the shortest time possible and should never be indefinite. 

We believe that any removals and deportations should be carried out fairly and humanely, with full consideration of the rights of the person being removed or deported and their families.

We believe that deportation should not be used as a “double punishment” for those who have already served a criminal sentence.

We believe that the people targeted by hostile migration policies should be at the forefront of the work to end those policies.

We believe that the UK’s detention and deportation systems are inherently racist, reflecting our country’s history of colonialism and disproportionately targeting people of colour.