Crime victims fear police ‘informers’

by NADEEM BADSHAH

MIGRANTS who have been victims of serious crimes are not reporting their experiences to the police because of fears of that data being shared with immigration officials.

Campaigners have warned that some men and women who have suffered attacks – including domestic violence, robbery, sex attacks or assaults – or those who have been a witness are not coming forward due to fears of ending up in a detention centre or being deported.

It comes as watchdogs are set to probe the police in England and Wales over the sharing of data on victims and witnesses of crime with immigration enforcement authorities.

Human rights groups Liberty and Southall Black Sisters (SBS) lodged the first super­complaint against the police over the “draconian” practice which sparked the investigation by the Inspectorate of Constabulary, the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Pragna Patel, director of SBS, told Eastern Eye: “The practice instils fear in the group of vulnerable migrant women that we work with and deters those women from reporting abuse.

“It is part of the government’s inhumane and hostile approach to immigration, but it directly contravenes the government’s obligations to protect women subject to domestic violence or other forms of harm.”

Patel added: “We would like to see an open and transparent investigation into how and why the police and immigration officials decided to adopt the policy and practice, allowing the sharing of information about immigration involving vulnerable people and abused women.

“This is, by all accounts, a draconian policy that has civil liberties and human rights implications, making it unlawful.”

The investigation may result in inspections or recommendations, which may include a public body that is better placed to deal with the issue.

Harjap Singh Bhangal, a leading immigration solicitor, told Eastern Eye: “I’m often called out to police stations where the person who has been a victim of crime or wrongly arrested, but who has been found to have no leave to remain is held in detention for immigration reasons.

“The police checks the status of the person and then holds them, pending the arrival of the UK Border Force.

“People stopped for minor traffic offences have ended up in immigration detention for months due to this process.

“As a result, many migrants are not reporting crimes when they are victims, because they fear ending up in a detention centre despite having been victims of domestic violence, robbery, sexual offences and assault.

“A police station should be seen a safe haven for victims of crimes. However, for many migrants who don’t have valid visas, it is often associated with being referred onto the UK Border Force and hence a lot of crime against migrants now goes unreported”.

After discovering that forces were likely to face a challenge over their tactics, the National Police Chiefs Council issued guidance in December, including a ban on officers checking the police national computer solely to determine if someone had leave to remain in the UK.

Officers will also be barred from passing on information about people suspected of being in the country illegally to authorities if they come forward as victims of crime.

Debaleena Dasgupta, a lawyer for Liberty, said: “Not only are those victims prevented from accessing justice, but others with insecure status feel too afraid to come forward for fear of similar treatment. There is a real concern that witnesses may also not feel able to report what they have seen, preventing investigation of other crimes.

“As a result, perpetrators are not investigated and are left free to commit further crimes, both against the same victims and potentially other people. This is an urgent issue of public safety. Some police officers are acting as de facto immigration officers, instead of public protectors.”

She added: “The new guidance doesn’t stop officers passing details of victims to the Home Office. It merely delays that data sharing.

“So, victims with insecure immigration status have every reason to continue fearing to report crimes or come forward as witnesses, because immigration enforcement will follow later rather than at the start.”

Chief constable Shaun Sawyer, the National Police Chiefs Council’s lead officer on modern slavery and organised immigration crime, said it was “imperative that we were clear that the role of the police and immigration enforcement are different”.

He added: “We had an inappropriate relationship with immigration enforcement whereby, by proxy, we were helping to kick people out of the country.

“There were a handful of cases that showed the relationship was too close and could not be tolerated. We are not a branch of immigration enforcement, we deal with crime and vulnerability.”