Amnesty International UK, Liberty, Women for Refugee Women and Freed Voices call for an immediate end to indefinite detention
Today, women from our network joined campaigners from Amnesty International UK, Liberty and Freed Voices to deliver a petition 100,000-signature petition to the Home Office calling for an end to indefinite detention. We met with MPs from across the political spectrum, including Harriet Harman, Andrew Mitchell, Tim Farron and Stuart McDonald, who expressed their support for the campaign.
Testimonies from women who have been detained in Yarl’s Wood:
Adele said: “Detention is another form of torture. You think you’ve escaped it in your home country but then you get here and you go to more.”
Jane said: “I am traumatised by the memory of Yarl’s Wood. It was such a horrible experience and even though I left about six months ago I still have nightmares about being taken back. It’s like you are haunted by Yarl’s Wood.”
Gabby said: “I feel angry that the Home Office has said that they aren’t going to detain women who have been raped and trafficked, but then don’t even try to find out about what women have been through before they lock them up.”
Natasha Walter, Director of Women for Refugee Women, said:
“There have been enough promises and reviews from the Home Office. It is now time for the government to ensure that women who have already been through human rights abuses are not exposed to further trauma by being detained. It is time to end the detention of vulnerable women at Yarl’s Wood and move away from detention altogether.”
Sam Grant, Policy and Campaigns Manager, Liberty, said:
“The voices calling for an end to indefinite immigration detention grow stronger every day, both inside and outside of Parliament. Yet the Government is still locking up tens of thousands of people without telling them how long they will be held or when they will be released.
“People’s lives are being wasted, communities damaged and families separated in the name of this costly, failing system. We need urgent action, a move to more effective and humane alternatives and a time limit on detention at the earliest opportunity.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme Director, said:
“Today thousands of people showed their outrage at the wide, excessive and routine use of detention in our country.
“The message is clear – the UK’s immigration detention system is in urgent need of fundamental change and it’s high time for Parliament to step in and legislate.
“Indefinite detention causes inexcusable levels of suffering and it is a matter of profound shame that the UK’s immigration system has and continues to subject so many people to it. Indefinite detention must end.”
Mishka* from Freed Voices:
“It is time for radical detention reform, the introduction of a 28-day time limit, and a great reduction of the UK’s detention estate by implementing alternatives to detention.
“In 2018, 24,748 people were put into immigration detention. There are eight long-term detention centres in the UK. Some people are also held in indefinite immigration detention in prisons.”
Call for reforms to the immigration detention system
In addition to an immediate end to indefinite immigration detention, Amnesty, Liberty, Women for Refugee Women and Freed Voices are calling for reforms including:
- automatic universal judicial oversight of detention decisions;
- the reintroduction of legal aid to help people to resolve their immigration cases;
- and the closure of more immigration removal centres (detention centres).