Home Office breached woman's human rights in Yarl's Wood 'punishment room'

Kenyan asylum seeker wins high court case after being placed in segregation for 28 hours in immigration removal centre

A Kenyan asylum seeker has won a landmark court victory after the Home Office was found to have acted unlawfully and in breach of her human rights by locking her up in segregation in a so-called "punishment room" for too long while she was in detention.

It is the first time that the Home Office's policy of placing some immigration detainees in segregation has been challenged. Several thousand of the 30,000 people detained every year are placed in segregation, according to data gathered by the charity Medical Justice in its report about segregation, A secret punishment (pdf). Many of those held in immigration removal centres have committed no crime.