Unlocked Archives - Page 4 of 32

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.

Separation and abandonment as a result of detention

This blog comes from A. Panquang, a member of Freed Voices (@FreedVoices) and Detention Forum volunteer. Detaining anybody simply means separating them from their familiar surroundings; away from friends, family and community. Everyone has a family and being in detention [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:46:15+00:00December 11th, 2018|

For many autumns to come

This blog was written by Mishka, a member of Freed Voices, a group of experts-by-experience committed to speaking out about the realities of immigration detention in the UK. And Mishka would like to introduce the blog himself… This [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:47:12+00:00December 10th, 2018|

‘The stain of detention will haunt us for the rest of our lives, but I don’t want it to define us’: Experts-by-experience give evidence to the JCHR inquiry

This blog comes from A. Panquang, a member of Freed Voices (@FreedVoices) and Detention Forum volunteer. On 28 November, A gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ inquiry into immigration detention alongside Michael, another member of Freed Voices. I [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:49:02+00:00December 8th, 2018|

Your pocket Home Office phrasebook: A dialect of dehumanisation

Patrick Page is a senior caseworker in public law at Duncan Lewis Solicitors (@DLPublicLaw). He is also founder and editor of No Walls, a forum for discussions on migration and human rights, with a focus on immigration detention. No Walls [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:50:17+00:00December 7th, 2018|

Week 6: #Unlocked18 visits Harmondsworth and Colnbrook

From the 26 November - 2 December, Unlocking Detention visited Colnbrook and Harmondsworth, the two detention centres next to Heathrow Airport. Here, a few hundred metres from the runway, well over 1,000 people can be detained indefinitely. As well [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:51:04+00:00December 6th, 2018|

“Once a criminal always a criminal”, especially if you don’t have a British passport

Content warning: suicide, torture. Image by @Carcazan This blog comes from Celia Clarke and Rudy Schulkind at BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees). BID tweets at @BIDdetention “I couldn’t go swimming, or even sit on the bus in case my [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:52:07+00:00December 6th, 2018|

Immigration detention is mental torture

Content warning: graphic descriptions of suicide and self-harm. Image by @Carcazan This blog comes from Souleymane, a member of Freed Voices. Freed Voices are a group of experts-by-experience who are committed to speaking out about the realities of [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:52:53+00:00December 6th, 2018|

“There was a chance justice would be done”

In this #Unlocked18 blog, Mishka at Freed Voices (@FreedVoices) interviews Tamsin Alger, Deputy Director at Detention Action about her experience of the Detained Fast Track (DFT) strategic litigation and campaign. The DFT litigation was one of the key [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:53:54+00:00December 4th, 2018|

“I have seen that the detention system in the UK is broken”

Content warning: suicide. This blog comes from Rhiannon Prideaux, a visitor with the Morton Hall Detainee Visitors Group. I visited people detained at Morton Hall detention centre for around three and a half years. In that time I [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:54:44+00:00December 3rd, 2018|

“We are not outsiders, we are one of your own”: Hearing Voices peer support groups in detention

Content warning: hearing voices, mental distress. Image by @Carcazan On 21 November, the Freed Voices group invited Akiko Hart, the project manager of the Hearing Voices project at Mind in Camden, to their November monthly meeting. Akiko and Freed [...]

Unlocked2022-10-05T11:56:05+00:00November 30th, 2018|