Just one in 15 asylum seekers felt safe at Lindholme detention centre

Asylum seekers are suffering sex abuse and public strip-searches in detention centres, according to the chief inspector of prisons.

Anne Owers said just 37% of detainees said they felt safe in the five centres examined in the new report.

In one, translation services were so bad that staff sang "Happy Birthday" to a new arrival to try to find out his date of birth.

Inspectors criticised three centres as unsafe: Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire; Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxfordshire and Lindholme in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Some 12% of asylum seekers at Campsfield House complained of sexual harassment.

Prison Service

Detainees at Haslar and Lindholme were strip-searched without explanation, sometimes in front of others, inspectors said.

Ms Owers said: "A policy of regular and random strip-searching must be wrong for detainees.

"It should only be taking place with clear intelligence relating to specific individuals and on the authority of a senior centre manager."

Just one in 15 detainees at Lindholme said they felt safe there, with the rate one in 10 at Haslar.

Both are run by the Prison Service.

'Humiliating'

Two other centres, Tinsley House, near Gatwick, and Oakington in Longstanton, Cambridgeshire, which both house children and families, were not suitable for stays of anything more than a few days, said inspectors.

In all centres except Oakington detainees were denied reliable information about why they were being held or the progress of their case.

At Lindholme, "intimidation and hostility was present though not widespread".

The attempt by staff there to sing to one man to find out his date of birth was "well meaning" but "disrespectful and humiliating for the detainee".

'Unsurprising'

The inspectors also found some detainees, who were awaiting deportation or for their claims to be processed, had been overcharged thousands of pounds by legal advisers.

The report is Ms Owers' first under her new powers to inspect what are officially known as Immigration Removal Centres.

Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said: "A large proportion of the findings reflect only the comments of the detainees themselves."

"As people are generally unhappy about being detained and removed from the country it is unsurprising that they express dissatisfaction with their situation."