MigrationWatchdog

Immigration detention: how many, how long, and how it ends

The detention estate in the official figures — the number held, how long completed detentions lasted, what actually ended them, and the welfare record the Home Office publishes alongside.

2,152 people were held in immigration detention at the latest published snapshot (at end of Year ending June 2026).

Read this first
Detention is an immigration power, not a criminal sentence: the people counted here are held under immigration legislation and most have not been convicted of anything. The individual removal centres, and what the bodies that inspect them have published about each, are on the detention centres page.

Detention: the third leg of enforcement

2,152
in immigration detention
at end of Year ending June 2026 · source
22,037
entered detention in a year
Year ending June 2026 · source
Entering detentionIn detention at year end
32k0201020252010 — Entering detention: 25,904 · In detention at year end: 2,5252011 — Entering detention: 27,089 · In detention at year end: 2,4192012 — Entering detention: 28,905 · In detention at year end: 2,6852013 — Entering detention: 30,418 · In detention at year end: 2,7962014 — Entering detention: 30,364 · In detention at year end: 3,4622015 — Entering detention: 32,447 · In detention at year end: 2,6072016 — Entering detention: 28,903 · In detention at year end: 2,7382017 — Entering detention: 27,348 · In detention at year end: 2,5452018 — Entering detention: 24,773 · In detention at year end: 1,7842019 — Entering detention: 24,480 · In detention at year end: 1,6372020 — Entering detention: 14,867 · In detention at year end: 9102021 — Entering detention: 24,638 · In detention at year end: 1,1792022 — Entering detention: 20,873 · In detention at year end: 1,1592023 — Entering detention: 18,398 · In detention at year end: 1,7822024 — Entering detention: 20,774 · In detention at year end: 1,9402025 — Entering detention: 23,072 · In detention at year end: 2,090
People entering immigration detention and the end-of-period detained population. Immigration detention summary tables, year ending June 2026 (Home Office).

The detained population at the latest year end is 2,152, against 2,607 at the end of 2015. Far more people are subject to deportation action in the community than are detained: 21,294 FNOs, though the two counts come from different tables and different dates.

Why people leave detention

Detention exists to effect removal. The Home Office's own table shows what actually ends a detention: in the latest year, more people were bailed back into the community than were removed from the country. Removal accounted for 46% of the 21,517 detentions that ended — the four reasons and the total are published in the same table and sum to it exactly, which is the only reason this share is constructed at all.

9,888
removed from the UK
Year ending June 2026 · source
10,908
bailed into the community
Year ending June 2026 · source
120
granted leave
Year ending June 2026 · source
21,517
all departures from detention
Year ending June 2026 · source
Removed from the UKBailed into the community
21k0201020252010 — Removed from the UK: 16,577 · Bailed into the community: 8,9412011 — Removed from the UK: 16,836 · Bailed into the community: 9,9082012 — Removed from the UK: 17,246 · Bailed into the community: 10,9352013 — Removed from the UK: 16,933 · Bailed into the community: 12,6382014 — Removed from the UK: 15,673 · Bailed into the community: 13,3862015 — Removed from the UK: 15,106 · Bailed into the community: 17,5402016 — Removed from the UK: 13,473 · Bailed into the community: 14,7712017 — Removed from the UK: 13,178 · Bailed into the community: 14,5472018 — Removed from the UK: 11,152 · Bailed into the community: 13,9532019 — Removed from the UK: 9,081 · Bailed into the community: 15,0752020 — Removed from the UK: 4,066 · Bailed into the community: 11,1742021 — Removed from the UK: 3,098 · Bailed into the community: 20,9912022 — Removed from the UK: 4,206 · Bailed into the community: 16,1792023 — Removed from the UK: 6,982 · Bailed into the community: 9,8922024 — Removed from the UK: 8,951 · Bailed into the community: 10,5432025 — Removed from the UK: 10,183 · Bailed into the community: 11,962
Occurrences of leaving immigration detention, removed vs bailed. Immigration detention summary tables, year ending June 2026 (Home Office).

How long detention lasts

The argument about detention is usually about duration, and the department publishes it. Of the 21,517 departures from detention in Year ending June 2026, 64.1% ended within a month and 2.2% ran beyond six months. The long tail is small in number and large in significance: 39 lasted 1 year to less than 18 months, 10 lasted 18 months to less than 2 years, 1 lasted 2 years to less than 3 years, 1 lasted over 4 years.

Occurrences of leaving immigration detention by length of detention, Year ending June 2026
Length of detentionOccurrencesShare
Up to 3 days3,95718.4%
4 days to 1 week2,0619.6%
Over 1 week to 2 weeks3,32015.4%
Over 2 weeks to less than 1 month4,46220.7%
1 month to less than 2 months4,27419.9%
2 months to less than 3 months1,5917.4%
3 months to less than 4 months7343.4%
4 months to less than 6 months6393%
6 months to less than 1 year4282%
1 year to less than 18 months390.2%
18 months to less than 2 years100%
2 years to less than 3 years10%
3 years to less than 4 years00%
Over 4 years10%
Year ending June 2026 · source
Occurrences, not people
This table counts periods of detention that ENDED in the year, not people and not people currently held: someone detained twice appears twice, and a person still in detention on the last day of the year is not in it at all. It therefore says how long completed detentions lasted — not how long the people in the tiles above have been held.

What the detention inspectorate found

HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspects immigration removal centres independently. Its findings are quoted here in pairs — the inspection's own overall judgement alongside the concerns it raised — so a positive report is never mined for negatives, or the reverse.

The inspectorate's overall judgement on the centre

“At this inspection, outcomes for detainees were good across all four healthy establishment tests, with progress against most of the concerns raised at the 2022 inspection.”
Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons · Introduction, p.3 · retrieved 2026-08-19

A key concern about the Home Office's own decisions to detain

“In a number of cases, the Home Office had not identified, explored, or taken sufficient account of vulnerability in making its initial decision to detain.”
Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons · What needs to improve, key concern 3, p.5 · retrieved 2026-08-19

Recent detention inspections

published up to 2026-07-14 · source

The statutory monitoring boards — and the department's replies

Separately from the inspectorate, an Independent Monitoring Board sits in every immigration removal centre and short-term holding facility and reports annually. What makes these documents unusual is that the Home Office publishes a written response to each one, so the concern and the department's answer to it are both on the record. The board's library holds 47 removal-centre documents and 48 short-term-holding documents; the most recent are listed below. Nothing is quoted from a report here — these are the documents themselves, linked, for a reader who wants the primary record rather than a summary of it.

published up to 2026-09-02 · source

Every independent check on this system, and whether anyone answered it →

Inside detention: the welfare record

1,048
Rule 35 medical reports (2026 Q2)
2026 Q2 · source
210
use-of-force incidents on removal flights (2026 Q2)
2026 Q2 · source
2
pregnant women detained (2026 Q2)
2026 Q2 · source

The department's own welfare disclosures for the detention estate: 1,048 Rule 35 reports in a single quarter means a doctor formally warned the Home Office that many times that detention may be harming a detainee's health or that torture concerns exist; use-of-force incidents are counted against 1,563 attempted escorted returns in the same quarter.

Download this data

Every file carries provenance headers. All datasets →

Data as of

Cite this page

Immigration detention: how many, how long, and how it ends. Migration Watchdog, data as of 2026-09-02.
https://migrationwatchdog.com/crime/detention
Underlying figures: UK official statistics, re-published under OGL v3.0 — every figure links to its source on the page.

Sources for this page