I once assumed that basic safeguards in immigration detention would be straightforward. The latest report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons suggests otherwise. At Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire, inspectors saw male detainees looking through the windows of women’s bedrooms. They also watched a group of men approach staff to ask why they could not mix with the female detainees.
These are not abstract policy failures. Female detainees told inspectors they could not move around the site without a staff escort, while the men enjoyed free movement. Forty-three per cent of the women said they felt unsafe in outside areas. Some never left the female unit unless it was absolutely necessary. Others were reluctant even when escorted. One woman put it plainly: We cannot go outside because of the males and our time to do things is quick because of them.
We cannot go outside because of the males and our time to do things is quick because of them.
That voice, captured in Charlie Taylor’s report, cuts through the usual bureaucratic language. Dungavel holds men and women in separate units on paper. In practice, the separation has clearly failed to deliver the security women need. The same concerns about mixing were raised in a 2021 inspection. Four years later, the pattern repeats.
The report also flagged a man assessed as posing a risk of harm to women being held at the centre, alongside another kept for more than a year despite impending prosecutions for sexual offences. These details sit alongside broader worries about the nighttime movement of women and the handcuffing of a pregnant detainee. As of December 2025, 119 women were held in immigration removal centres across the country. Their safety should not depend on escorts and curtailed freedoms.
What we see here is the predictable result of an asylum system that has prioritised accommodation over proper vetting and swift removal of risks. Progressive policies that treat all arrivals as equally deserving have eroded the basic protections British women and staff should expect. National cohesion suffers when safe spaces for women are compromised to manage the consequences of mass migration.
Reform is overdue. Stricter segregation must be enforced, not merely written into policy. Faster processing and deportation of those who pose any risk to women cannot wait for another inspection. The quiet exasperation of female detainees, reluctant to step outside their own unit, should shame policymakers into action. Flawed institutions can still function when incentives are corrected. The alternative is continued erosion of trust and safety.
