This contribution to #Unlocked18 comes from Ralph, who got in touch via Twitter. Ralph was detained for a total of 14 months in two prisons and a detention centre. Ralph tweets as @RO2tm
I was detained on two separate occasions. First was after serving a 10 month custodial sentence. The home office detained me for another 8 months. This was between 2012- 2013, then I was released in December of 2013 and detained again in August of 2014. I was first detained in HMP Hewell, then HMP Wormwood Scrubs, then Harmondsworth IRC.
Considering the level of suffering and my thirst for freedom, I opted to leave in January of 2015 voluntarily and I’ve been trying to get back to my four children ever since. It’s been nearly three years without my kids. Bear in mind I lived in the UK well over 12 years before all of this.
Commercial and social shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic. As an immigrant, I chose to live in the UK because it is one of the free and most vibrant nations in the world. And as an immigrant, I feel an obligation to speak up for immigration policies that will keep the UK the most economically robust, creative and freedom-loving nation in the world. Immigration is a necessary component of economic growth.
Believe me, I understand the majority’s anguish about immigration, but what I can’t and will not understand is the racism. I will support concrete and progressive immigration reform based on three primary criteria: family reunification, economic contributions, and humanitarian concerns.
Immigrants emigrate
Hopeful anticipate
Teachers educate
I am what I am without
A shadow of doubt one of a kind
Walk through tryna find my place
Tryna escape all the hardships
I’m confronted with
Revolving around me was a law that facilitates hate premeditated
Judgement never got a fair
Judgement spent a lot of time down in the seg
Thankfully I had my pen’s intervention
Don’t seek revenge
But I seek redemption for the separation
I’ve got see my kids got to show them love got to give them kisses