Haslar week…
28 Sep to 4 Oct - the Unlocking Detention team looks back on the week when the tour visited Haslar Immigration Removal Centre in Portsmouth. After looking at the Short Term Holding Centres and prisons which are used for immigration detention, Unlocking Detention tour's very first proper visit was to Haslar [...]
Music in Detention: Reflections on three visits to IRCs in 2012
This post was written by Zoe Burton, Programme Manager (maternity cover, 2012 and 2014) for Music in Detention (MID). MID is a member of the Detention Forum. I was delighted to be recruited to Music In Detention as Programme Manager (maternity cover) in Jan 2012 to coordinate a number of [...]
Reporting Morton Hall: The media “myth”
Bridget Walker is an active member of the Detention Forum and works with a number of NGOs. She shares her personal reflection on the way the media keeps the myth of "dangerous foreigners" alive. ‘The death was used as an excuse for unrest’ [1] In September 2014 a man died in [...]
Helping the Other: Particular experiences, universal outlooks
This article by Shauna Leven and Sam Grant was published as part of Unlocking Detention series on Open Democracy. London’s synagogues have set up drop-in centres for destitute asylum seekers and are campaigning to end immigration detention. Shauna Leven and Sam Grant explore how the British Jewish community uses [...]
Voices from Morton Hall
In this blog post, two people currently detained in Morton Hall detention centre tell Leeds No Borders about their experiences. ''From 8pm til 8am we are locked up ... Phone signal is really bad so no one can get in touch. Even outside the signal is poor. If something is [...]
“This is mental torture after prison and no respect for humanity”
This post was written by the Morton Hall Detainee Visitor Group (MHDVG). The quotations included in the post are from people currently detained in Morton Hall, who have spoken with MHDVG for this piece. Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre is in Swinderby, Lincolnshire, and is currently one of the UK's [...]
Hamid on alternatives to detention
Image courtesy of Freed Voices This post is written by Hamid, who has experienced immigration detention. His testimony was provided for Detention Action's forthcoming annual report. In the three and a half years I was in detention, I was visited twice by the Home Office – first, they took my fingerprints [...]
Flip flops placed neatly outside isolation unit doors
The writer visited one of the wings of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre a few years ago. This is an edited version of his diary. Several months previously, I was part of a small group of people who were given a tour inside one of the high-security immigration detention centres. [...]