Call for solidarity with wave of resistance in UK detention centres

"We are begging the human rights organisations, the queen and the whole world: please get rid of this prison."

A detainee in Harmonsworth

(the biggest detention centre in Europe)

CALL from detainedvoices@riseup.net:

Call for solidarity with wave of resistance in UK detention centres

As you may have heard, hunger strikes and occupations have been happening in 8 of the UK detention centres for a week now. Hundreds have been refusing food and protesting in the centres.

People are speaking out through blogs: detainedvoices.wordpress.com and www.facebook.com/standoffilms

This is the biggest uprising against the detention system in the UK for many years. The protests come after a major news channel released secret footage from inside these racist prisons:

View videos on Channel 4 and Corporate Watch websites.

Yet coverage in the UK has been almost entirely restricted to a single news channel - Channel 4 News.  

The only consistent other coverage comes from Russia Today

People detained and involved in the protests ask that their struggle be known by all. They have requested media coverage, presence outside the detention centres and support spreading their demands/messages.

There have been UK solidarity actions regularly over the last week. See Anti Raids website

A bus taking people to the airport due to be deported to Afghanistan was also blocked.

People are now asking for actions of solidarity from outside the UK - at Embassies, detention centres etc. Protests at UK Embassies, especially if shown in non-UK media, would make it harder for the UK news embargo to continue, and put pressure on the UK government.

Please let us know if you organise something. People inside are hugely motivated to know that knowledge of their protest is spreading. Any coverage is a win.

Supportive messages/photos can be sent to detainedvoices@riseup.net. If you would like to speak to a media spokesperson from those detained we can also put you in contact.

Love, rage and solidarity!

Harmonsworth detainees’ recent courtyard occupation

Current protests have taken place in Colnbrook, Dungavel, Dover, Harmondsworth, Merton Hall, The Verne, Tinsley House and Yarl’s Wood centres.

These hunger strikes follow in the wake of at least four major hunger strikes by women in Yarl’s Wood IRC since 2005 which protested: mothers being separated from their children; sexual abuse by guards; the detention of rape survivors, pregnant women and other

vulnerable people as well as the appalling health care, food and generally abusive regime.  Their protests have prevented deportations and won the release of many women - and compensation for unlawful detention. Some women are calling for Yarl’s Wood and all detention centres to be closed down.

Some of the current grievances and demands of detainees are :

o   An end to the “Detained Fast Track” where immigrants have no time to prepare their case

o   Independent free legal advice and representation. Some detainees cannot afford to hire lawyers to defend them so their only option is to use Home Office appointed ones but those lawyers work hand-in-hand with the Home Office.

o   Against indefinite deprivation of liberty and refusal to return those who want to go back to their country of origin

o   Against unlawful detention as if detainees are criminals, even mentally ill people are detained

o   Against bias in Home Office case-handling

o   Against; unlawful and violent forced removals

o   Against degrading conditions; overcrowded accommodation “comparable to animal cages”; poor food

o   Against poor health care - detainees can’t see a doctor even in an emergency; ambulances turned away; physical and mental health of detainees are often worse than before they came into detention;

o   Against the trafficking of detainees from centre to centre - the more a detainee is moved the money the security company get.

o   An end to the exploitation of detainees who work in the centres for £1/h.

o   Against the abuses by private companies running the centres which do not allow the media in; there is a lot of repression, beating, water deprivation, incarceration in isolation units

What you can do:

► Contact Theresa May, Secretary of State for the Home Department.

privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Fax: +44 (0)20 7035 0900

Rt. Hon Theresa May, Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2 Marsham St, London, SW1P 4DF

Tell her to allow the media in and to urgently respond to the detainees' demands and grievances

► Contact your MP, MEP (www.writetothem.com) and the press and ask them to intervene.

► CC your messages and responses to payday@paydaynet.org so we can help to circulate them.

The evacuation of the Amygdaleza migrant detention centre in Greece continues at a rate of 30 migrants per day. Migrants can use the documents they obtained to apply for repatriation or move to the destination of their choice in Europe. Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Yiannis Panousis has pledged to close down the Amygdaleza facility within 100 days citing inhumane living conditions.

Circulated by Payday men’s network payday@paydaynet.org  www.refusingtokill.net and

Black Women’s Rape Action Project bwrap@rapeaction.net  www.womenagainstrape.net