Today, 18 October, is the National Day of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention.

The day, co-organised by Right to Remain and No to Hassockfield, brings together organisations and campaigners from all across the UK with one unified message: Immigration detention must end now.

What is immigration detention?

Immigration detention is a Government practice that locks people up in prison-like conditions whilst their immigration status is resolved.

People can be detained at any point during their asylum journey and the UK remains the only European country to have no time limit on detention – this means people can be locked up for weeks and months on end.

The Government’s stated purpose for detention is to deport people from the UK. Yet, a recent FOI (June 2024) revealed that 89% of women were released from detention to continue with their asylum cases in our communities. This highlights the pointlessness of detention.

Why do we campaign to end it?

Immigration detention causes huge harm to people’s physical and mental health. It restricts people’s freedom and liberty and it retraumatises people who have come to the UK seeking safety. No one should be locked up in detention.

We’ve been campaigning to end detention for over eleven years. During this time, we have released several ground-breaking reports that demonstrate the devastating impact of detention on women:

• One in five women we spoke to for our report Detained had tried to end their lives in detention.
• Forty percent of the women interviewed for our report I Am Human had self-harmed whilst in detention.
• Our 2025 report, A Decade of Harm, found that 85% of women felt anxious or depressed, 85% felt less than human, and 65% felt suicidal.

What do we want?

We are campaigning to:

• Shut down Derwentside – which is currently the main detention centre for women – and close the small units for women at Yarl’s Wood, Colnbrook and Dungavel detention centres.
• Increase the use of community-based, engagement-focused alternatives to detention, which work to resolve asylum and immigration cases in our communities.
• End the use of immigration detention completely – for everyone.

Hear from women who have experienced immigration detention

“I am a different person now. My physical and mental health have been destroyed. I lost my period, I became stressed, I am traumatised. I am still suffering; I am still in pain. No one should go through what I went through in detention, it is hell.” – Anika

“When you come here to seek protection from abuse, exploitation and persecution but instead the Home Office locks you up, you wonder if you are in a good country or in hell. I am still living with the trauma of detention today.” – Agnes

“Yarl’s Wood felt like a prison, a lion’s den. I had suicidal thoughts because I did not know how to help myself and death seemed like the only way out. I wish the Home Office would treat us as human beings. I just want to be given a chance at life and have the freedom to be myself.” – Anu

Support women in detention

Women who have come to the UK seeking safety from war, persecution and violence, are instead locked up in detention.

Most women we’re currently supporting in detention are detained in Derwentside detention centre in County Durham or Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedford.

Each week, we support women with phone credit so they can stay in touch with their loved ones and legal support, and hardship support so they can buy the necessities they need to survive, such as toiletries.

A donation of £10 can support one woman in detention for one week. It shows her that she is not alone. Donate now.