Prison
Cat IRC Charter Flight Monitoring Team
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Charter Flight Monitoring Team (CFMT)
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 4 September 2025
The Independent Monitoring Board's Charter Flight Monitoring Team (CFMT) observed 12 charter operations during the reporting year, highlighting ongoing concerns about the treatment of individuals removed from the UK. Key issues include the removal of vulnerable people, the inhumane duration of in-vehicle confinement for returnees, and an increase in the use of restraint. The Board also noted improvements in interpreter provision and escort interactions but raised alarms about medical confidentiality and the reliability of interpretation assessments.
Positive Findings
The Board noted improved provision of professional interpreters and consistently observed escorts' friendly and respectful approach towards returnees. There were positive decisions not to proceed with removals due to health concerns, and the standard of coach driving improved. Escorts ensured returnees were suitably dressed for travel and provided clothes when needed. There was also evidence of good forward planning for medication.
Key Concerns
Safety
Repeated
HOIE continued to remove people with known vulnerabilities, whether around their mental health or their risk of harming themselves.
Safety
There was an increase in the use of restraint on returnees.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
The impact on returnees of night operations and prolonged confinement in vehicles during road journeys to airports needs continued scrutiny.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
Processes used to identify interpretation needs are unreliable, and consistent provision and use of professional interpreters or alternative translation services (The Big Word app) is not fully delivered, leading to comprehension issues for returnees.
Mental Health
Repeated
The removal of individuals directly from psychiatric units, with direction orders not correctly signed off by authorised medical staff, continues to be a concern, with legal advice from the Home Office still pending.
Safety
Repeated
Risk assessments are unclear due to excessive acronyms, hindering understanding by escorting staff and observers.
Safety
Repeated
Discrepancies in official reports on timings and restraint positions (WRB), raising doubts about record reliability.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Inadequate and unsanitary toilet facilities on coaches, including lack of privacy and hot water, and the demeaning use of disposable urine bags in vans.
Healthcare
Repeated
The mass handover of returnees’ prescribed medication and medical notes to receiving authorities at destination airports is a potential breach of medical confidentiality.
Complaints/Property
Operational challenges on single-aisle aircraft prevent all returnees who wish to speak with the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) from having the opportunity.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Escorts received regular briefings, with additional support for those new to charters. Staff with strong interpersonal skills were assigned to returnees on care plans. Training on ACDTs is ongoing and regularly reinforced. Efforts have been made to improve interpretation support for staff through briefings and Notices to Staff.
Healthcare
Healthcare services are provided by IPRS Aeromed. The Board remains concerned about the ongoing removal of individuals directly from psychiatric units, despite legal advice that medical staff were not authorised to sign removal directions. While paramedics ensure continuity of care and address minor ailments, a significant concern persists regarding the potential breach of medical confidentiality when prescribed medication and notes are handed over to receiving authorities.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime for charter flight removals consistently involves night operations and lengthy periods of in-vehicle confinement, sometimes for hours, before and during road journeys to airports. This practice, driven by HOIE's arrival timetables and choice of distant airports, remains a significant, long-standing concern for the Board due to its impact on returnees' welfare.
Recommendations (7)
Home Office: 5
Other: 2
6 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
It is neither fair nor humane to subject people being removed from the country: • to a process for their delivery to the airport, which always takes place through the night, to meet an arrival timetable HOIE has agreed with the overseas authorities and • (as part of this process) to hours of confinement in vehicles to reach departure airports selected by HOIE. A fairer and more humane approach should be adopted.
Home Office
Regime
Response
The departure time of all charter flights is carefully planned and considers several factors, including stipulations by receiving countries on arrival time, minimising impacts on the wider Immigration Removal Centre (IRC estate and residents, public order and transport disruption risks (day-time travel to airports means far longer journey times, and so more time on coaches). Receiving countries are influenced by a number of factors when agreeing landing timing requests such as balancing against peak arrival times and having suitable numbers of officials and support staff available for swift processing. A benefit of arriving in the morning is that this enables individuals who are being returned to make onward journeys during the daytime. To maximise the robustness of our delivery model, we operate from multiple locations to spread risk and mitigate against over reliance on one departure point. The portfolio of airports we operate out of is regularly reviewed to ensure they represent the best options when considering all impacting factors of the charter operations. This includes distance from IRCs and initiating discussions with airport operators where we identify new departure airports that would offer optimum operating conditions. However, operational planning always aims to minimise the length of operation and time on coaches.
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The processes used to identify interpretation needs are unreliable and should be improved. Consideration should be given to having translators on all operations, including ones where it might be considered most of the returnees might speak English.
Home Office
Equality
Response
The Home Office has identified a number of procedural changes to enhance the communication between teams to better identify the interpretation needs of detained individuals. These processes are currently being reviewed and implementation of these changes are expected to be completed by the end September 2024. Once implemented, this will be communicated to the CFMT’s team leader.
Recommendation 3
Repeated
In the Board’s view, the risk assessments should be written in such a way to ensure clarity, avoiding, for example, too many acronyms. This would mean that the document could be easily understood by escorting staff and observers.
Home Office
Safety
Recommendation 4
The use of single aisle aircraft presents a challenge to both the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO, an Immigration Enforcement representative who travels on flights) and the returnees wishing to speak with the CIO. On occasion, the CIO is unable to talk to everyone because aisles are blocked for (flight) operational reasons. Consideration should be given as to how the CIO’s ‘surgery’ could best be carried out so that all returnees are given an opportunity to meet with the CIO.
Home Office
Complaints
Recommendation 5
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The length of time returnees are held in coaches, before the road journey to the selected airport even begins, is another long-standing concern of the CFMT. These long periods of confinement have continued and should be reduced.
Home Office
Regime
Response
It is operationally challenging to reduce coach waiting times due to location of centres and airports however we do aim to minimise this. We recognise the impact this can have on individual wellbeing and endeavour to counter this by providing distraction packs to all returnees. We also endeavour to reduce coach waiting times by deploying advance parties to prepare documentation and property to streamline collections. We are developing a tracking tool so that we can identify trends around coach waiting times and explore any outliers either particularly long or particularly short waiting times with an eye to further streamline collections.
Recommendation 6
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The plan given in response to our previous annual reports, detailing the various steps escorts would take to achieve interpreting support for returnees when a professional interpreter was not present, has been achieved to only a limited extent. The plan was impressive, but it needs to be fully delivered.
Other
(other)
Equality
Response
Since the last report, we have improved our interpretation support by ensuring that interpreters are available in person and if not, then to have interpreters available by phone. We remind staff of this requirement through Charter Flight Muster Briefings, Notice to Staff (NTS) and highlight this during Detention Custody Officer Manager meetings. This area has also been added to the compliance internal audit baseline and is reviewed during all Care & Custody Overseas Escorting Charter Flight internal audits; biannual audits continue to be completed and are shared with the Home Office. Additionally, the translation app is available all C&C work phones which, in addition to translation tablets, enables all coach commanders / team leaders to access translation should it be needed. This is monitored by the Overseas Performance Management Team, as well as the ES Compliance Team with lessons learned fed through to staff for continuous improvement.
Recommendation 7
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
We recommend that further discussions take place with IRCs about locating suitable areas where – once they have gone through the induction process – returnees can be held before boarding a coach.
Other
(other)
Regime
Response
C&C had discussed this with staff in a couple of IRCs. The suggestion was rejected.