THE Home Office has a “shockingly cavalier attitude” towards detaining asylum-seekers, a cross-party group of MPs has found.

A new report by Parliament’s home affairs committee, published today, said the department had “utterly failed in its responsibility to oversee the safe and humane detention of individuals in the UK.”

Thousands of people pass through the Home Office’s network of detention centres each year, while they wait for a decision on their asylum and immigration cases.