The British chief inspector of prisons, Ann Owers, has expressed concern about how asylum seekers detained in Northern Ireland are handled by the authorities.
Detainees spent nights in police cells in the North without proper facilities and when being transferred to a holding centre in Scotland were handcuffed in public, she said in her report on the Dungavel House immigration removal centre in Scotland.
Dealing with asylum seekers is not a devolved matter, with the result that it is handled by the British home office. Neither is there a holding centre for such immigrants in the North who, if detained in Northern Ireland, are subsequently transferred to Dungavel House.
In her general report Ms Owers expressed overall satisfaction with Dungavel House, which can hold up to 190 men, women and children, but she had serious misgivings about what happened to asylum seekers after they were apprehended in the North.
"We were particularly concerned about detainees from Northern Ireland, most of whom had spent nights in police cells there, without any proper facilities, before their lengthy journey to Dungavel.
"This included a woman who was five months pregnant and a man who needed to go to hospital during police detention," she reported.
"No police custody records accompanied them, to show any vulnerability or medical problems. We also found that detainees continued to be handcuffed in public places: for example, when getting on or off the ferry from Northern Ireland, or in the public area of the immigration hearing centre in Glasgow," added Ms Owers.
"A previous recommendation that this practice should be stopped had been accepted, but it nevertheless continued."
Ms Owers said her inspectors interviewed several detainees who had experienced protracted and anxious journeys from the North after they were, mostly, detained at Belfast City Airport. They were handcuffed when boarding the ferry at Larne and when disembarking at Stranraer. Handcuffs were removed during the crossing when they sat between escorts.
"Detainees said they felt humiliated when people stared at them in handcuffs, with uniformed custody officers on either side, although the officers tried to minimise this by waiting for other passengers to pass before they moved detainees on or off the ferry."
Asylum seekers were also routinely handcuffed when bail applicants travelled from Dungavel to the immigration hearing centre in Glasgow.
