According to today’s Guardian, chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick says that the regime at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre (IDC) is guilty of a “shocking loss of humanity” in their treatment of detainees. On at least two occasions staff

needlessly handcuffed elderly, vulnerable and incapacitated detainees in what he called "an excessive and shocking manner". He said that the two men were so ill that one died shortly after his handcuffs were removed and the other, the 84-year-old, who has been named as Alois Dvorzac, died while still restrained.

The first man remained handcuffed in hospital while sedated and undergoing an operation. Mr Dvorzac died while still in handcuffs. They were taken off only after his heart had stopped.

Handcuffing happens regularly because of “a lack of intelligent individual risk assessment”. In fact it looks like the default position when even a detainee classified as “low-risk” has to be escorted outside the centre, e.g. to hospital. (“Low-risk”, by the way, means “not likely to try to escape”.) Hardwick gives the example of a case where “a detainee who was using a wheelchair following a stroke had been handcuffed on a journey to hospital for no obvious reason”. This is cruel and inhuman treatment, and the government should now ensure that it ceases immediately, both at Harmondsworth and, if neccessary, across the detention estate.