Male migrants caught looking through the windows of women's bedrooms. At a UK detention centre. In 2025. The report dropped this week and it should make every parent and taxpayer furious.
Inspectors at Dungavel House in South Lanarkshire saw it with their own eyes. Men peering in. A group of them even approached staff to demand why they couldn't mix with the women. Female detainees reported feeling uncomfortable every time they stepped out. Shouts. Inappropriate comments. Forty-three percent of the women said they didn't feel safe in the outside areas.
Some women refused to leave their unit unless they absolutely had to. One told inspectors they could not go outside because of the males and their time to do things was quick because of them. They got escorted everywhere while the men wandered more freely. How is that fair? How is that safe?
The men they chose to hold there
The centre housed men with a history of sexual violence. Men assessed as posing a risk of harm to women. One bloke with impending sexual offence prosecutions sat there for over a year until just before the inspection. Yet the place still mixed them in with women. The 2021 inspection had already flagged the dangers of holding men with violence against women in a mixed-sex centre. It recommended a specific safer custody and safeguarding policy for women. That never happened.
Monthly safety interviews for the women? Policy said yes. Practice said no. Governance meetings barely bothered about women's safety. This isn't a slip-up. It's a pattern.
Far fewer women than men are held in immigration detention in the UK and, as a result, their experiences are still largely shaped by policies designed for men.
Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, put it plainly in the report. The whole system is built around the men. Women make up just six percent of those in immigration removal centres, short-term holding facilities and prisons as of December 2025. Yet their lives get shaped by rules that ignore the obvious risks.
