Parliamentary Briefing: Border Security, Asylum & Immigration Bill (2025) – Time Limit Amendment

/ July 2, 2025

For too long, people in the UK have been held in detention without a clear, statutory time limit. Indefinite detention causes enormous harm to people’s mental health and contributes to the many barriers people face to accessing legal advice, resolving their immigration status or regaining their freedom.

In many cases, people are held by the Home Office in immigration detention for weeks, months or even years, only to be released back into the community at a later date; their detention having served no purpose. The harm to their health and their families, and the cost to the public, are enormous.

That is why, together with the Bail for Immigration Detainees, Medical Justice, ILPA, and the organisations listed below, we are calling for the introduction of:

• A time limit of 28 days detention for persons detained for immigration purposes;
• General criteria for detention to ensure detention for the purpose of removal will only be used when strictly necessary and proportionate and when the person can be shortly removed; and
• Judicial oversight of detention, via the First-tier Tribunal, with automatic bail hearings after 96 hours of detention.

To support these proposals, we have produced a new briefing, making a clear case for a time limit on immigration detention, which you can download here:

JOINT BRIEFING ON TIME LIMIT AMENDMENT TO THE BORDER SECURITY, ASYLUM & IMMIGRATION BILL (JUNE 2025)