Unlocked

Unlocking Detention shone a spotlight on the hidden world of immigration detention. This ‘virtual tour’ of the immigration detention estate used Twitter, Facebook and a website to ‘unlock’ the gates of immigration detention centres.

Each week, Unlocking Detention ‘visited’ one of the UK’s detention centres. We heard from people who had been detained there, volunteer visitors, NGOs, campaigners and the families, friends, neighbours and communities over whom detention cast its long shadows.

We started Unlocking Detention back in 2014 and it ran for 6 years. While we no longer run this campaign with its dedicated website, it has left a powerful legacy of the impact of immigration detention. We have archived the key information, and we are now proud to continue to make it accessible via our website.

Stateless, unreturnable and detained in the UK

By Jan Brulc, head of communications for the European Network on Statelessness.  This article was originally published as part of Unlocking Detention on the Justice Gap website.  Peter is in his late fifties. He came to the UK [...]

2022-10-05T17:11:31+00:00November 15th, 2016|

Healthcare: a labyrinthine system. A Campsfield case study

By Liz Peretz, Campaign to Close Campsfield Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide People held in immigration detention centres are among the most vulnerable people in our society. Many detainees have suffered torture or ill treatment, have significant and chronic [...]

2022-10-05T17:12:21+00:00November 15th, 2016|

How detention split me and my brother in half

This year, the Unlocking Detention blog is particularly focusing on the impact of detention on an individual’s immediate social circle – their friends and family. This piece is written by "Mishka", of the Freed Voices group (the author’s [...]

2022-10-05T17:14:04+00:00November 13th, 2016|

Week 5: #Unlocked16 visits Harmondsworth

There's been lots of engagement with #Unlocked16 this week, as we visited the UK’s largest detention centre.  Harmondsworth can hold up to 676 people, all men.  Opened as a purpose-built detention centre in 2000, Harmondsworth is situated right [...]

2022-10-05T17:14:42+00:00November 13th, 2016|

Live Q&A with Justice, detained in Harmondsworth

This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Harmondsworth - the largest detention centre in the UK, with a capacity for 661 people, and once the 'spiritual' home of the now abolished Detained Fast Track. On Friday afternoon, Ben [...]

2022-10-05T17:15:38+00:00November 11th, 2016|

Entangled in Harmondsworth

By Silvia Maritati, Advocacy Coordinator at Detention Action. “People detained under the Immigration Act powers are unique among the prison population in that their future is entirely uncertain...The degree of uncertainty which is facing detainees in this position [...]

2022-10-05T17:16:31+00:00November 9th, 2016|

Week 4 of #Unlocked16: Morton Hall

This week, Unlocking Detention visited Morton Hall in Lincolnshire.   Morton Hall opened as an "immigration removal centre" in 2011, having previously been other kinds of prison for men, women and youth since 1958. There are 392 bed spaces [...]

2022-10-05T17:17:22+00:00November 8th, 2016|

A footnote on Harmondsworth

As told by 'K'.  Footnotes by Ciara Bottomley of Detention Action. The first time I was detained was in 2010. (See below: 1) I was in Harmondsworth then too. The centre was the same then as it is now. [...]

2022-10-05T17:18:35+00:00November 6th, 2016|

Live Q and A with Dave, detained in Morton Hall

This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Morton Hall in Lincolnshire. On Friday afternoon, Ben from Detention Action conducted a live Twitter Q&A with Dave, who's been detained for nearly two years altogether. You can recap the whole interview [...]

2022-10-05T17:19:38+00:00November 4th, 2016|

The Home Office’s unlawful immigration curfews, post-detention

This article by Ravi Naik, Public and International Law Solicitor and Head of Public Law at ITN Solicitors, was first published by the Justice Gap. The unravelling of the Home Office’s immigration curfew regime following the Court of Appeal [...]

2022-10-05T17:20:37+00:00November 4th, 2016|
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