Last week, it was Brook House detention centre’s turn to be ‘visited’ by Unlocking Detention.
This week (12-18 Oct) Unlocking Detention is visiting Brook House IRC,near Gatwick airport #Unlocked15 pic.twitter.com/MFvUbMH4J9
— TheDetentionForum (@DetentionForum) October 12, 2015
#BrookHouse #detention was designed on a category B prison model.This is how it looks like #Unlocked15 pic.twitter.com/7t4BvZ8tcB
— TheDetentionForum (@DetentionForum) October 15, 2015
It's Brook House week on the #Unlocked15 tour of the UK's IRCs. Powerful voices from inside the centre. #Time4aTimeLimit
— Gatwick Detainees (@GatDetainees) October 13, 2015
@GatDetainees support around 700 people a year in #BrookHouse IRC each year, many of whom have fled war, persecution or torture. #Unlocked15
— Gatwick Detainees (@GatDetainees) October 15, 2015
We had some brilliant articles published during Brook House week. There was a really interesting piece published by our partners The Justice Gap, on the politics of space and time, looking at the Refugee Tales walk along the Pilgrim’s Way, which involved people who had experienced detention first-hand.
Refugee tales: asylum seekers, ex detainees & supporters walk the pilgrim's way http://t.co/wr9Dsisk59 #Unlocked15 pic.twitter.com/eZ7itOHVb7
— The Justice Gap (@JusticeGap) October 14, 2015
This article lead to a discussion on Twitter about making the ‘invisible spaces’ of detention visible, a key aim of the Unlocking Detention project. Jenny Edkins, Professor of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth, made the connection between Unlocking Detention and the work of Tings Chak. You can read more about Tings’ publication ‘Undocumented: the architecture of migrant detention’ here.
"Tings Chak documents migrant detention facility spaces which are usually unseen or invisible" @t_ings #Unlocked15 https://t.co/8qi70hKhBr
— Jenny Edkins (@jenny_edkins) October 14, 2015
During Brook House week, the Immigration Bill 2015 got its second reading in the House of Commons. Read about what the Bill means for immigration detention, and what happens next, in this piece by Jon Featonby, parliamentary manager at the Refugee Council and parliamentary lead for the Detention Forum.
New on @JusticeGap for #Unlocked15. Immigration Bill:injection of compassion sorely needed http://t.co/g5oFtHPDnT pic.twitter.com/rgkn50KVPb
— Right to Remain (@Right_to_Remain) October 15, 2015
We heard from Yann, detained in Brook House for 4 months and detained for a year and half overall.
'There was no advice, no assistance' a detainee's life at Brook House. #Unlocked15 @DetentionForum http://t.co/wziUdRcipQ
— The Justice Gap (@JusticeGap) October 13, 2015
https://twitter.com/ilegal/status/653991315366105092
"My support structure fell away. That left me feeling even more isolated" #detention http://t.co/5TnqYHNlW4… #Unlocked15 @JusticeGap
— Detention Action (@DetentionAction) October 13, 2015
"When I was not in my cell I spent every moment I could doing research on to get out of detention" #Unlocked15 http://t.co/5TnqYHNlW4…
— Detention Action (@DetentionAction) October 13, 2015
Also last week, Bristol Immigration Detention Campaign released their fantastic Keys to Freedom video in support of Unlocking Detention. Take a look!
Our #Bristol #KeyToFreedom campaign video supporting #Unlocked15 is ready to share https://t.co/96d17qpp56 @bristol_dawn, @alicecuttlefish
— BIDC (@BrisXDetention) October 14, 2015
On Friday, we ended the week with our now traditional Q and A with someone detained in the IRC that is the focus of the week’s ‘tour’. This week, Ray answered your questions. Ray is currently detained in Brook House.
Catch up on all the questions put to Ray, and his illuminating responses, here.
Some thanks are due: Thank you to Ray for providing such valuable insight into life in detention, thank you for all your questions, thanks for Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group for putting us in touch with Ray, and a special thanks to Ben from Detention Action for interviewing Ray.
We also continued to get some amazing contributions to our Unlocked15 theme – What would you miss if you were detained? (Or for those who actually have been detained, what did you miss?). Remember you can still share yours on Twitter, using the hashtag #Unlocked15.
What did you miss most when you were locked up w/ no time-limit? Michael from #FreedVoices: #MyFamily #Unlocked15 pic.twitter.com/CWMDnMcnAM
— Detention Action (@DetentionAction) October 15, 2015
https://twitter.com/EiriOhtani/status/654640007358095360
We would miss having a future to plan for. What would you miss most if you were locked up indefinitely? #Unlocked15 pic.twitter.com/KMq104qAXh
— Refugee Week (@RefugeeWeek) October 14, 2015
And finally, there was big detention news last week, not related to Brook House.
It's not #Dover week on #Unlocked15 – but the detention centre here is due to close http://t.co/D7sy0rDLVF
— Samphire (@samphire_) October 15, 2015
This is great news, and we hope more will follow. No reason has been given for the closure at this point, but we like to think that the Unlocking Detention visit to Dover the week before the news broke was the final nail in the coffin!