National Protest against Derwentside IRC (Hassockfield)
Our friends in the North East are organising another national protest against the new detention centre in Derwentside - previously known as Hassockfield. It will be held on Saturday 15th October 2022 at midday - and this time it will be at the detention centre, Medomsley, County Durham, DH8 6QY. [...]
The cost of immigration detention
We thought that it was helpful to highlight a recent Parliamentary question asked by Alison Thewliss MP of Simon Baynes MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office/ Ministry of Justice. She asked him how much it costs to hold an individual under immigration powers in prison, per [...]
New research on access to justice for people detained in prison
Our friends at BID have just published a really informative report on the difficulties people detained in prison have when they try to access justice. Their new research documents the multiple and intersecting barriers to justice faced by people detained under immigration powers in prison. The research is based on [...]
Joint letter to stop accommodation centres
We were very happy recently to add our collective name to the joint inter-agency letter, co-ordinated by Asylum Matters, calling on the Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary to to scrap all plans for asylum accommodation centres, following the decision to withdraw the planned site at Linton-on-Ouse. And it was [...]
Keep Campsfield Closed
As we blogged last month, we deplore the decision of the government to re-open the Campsfield immigration centre in Kidlington, north of Oxford. The Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed has been launched, and do check out their website to see their latest actions including the planned protest in Parliament Square [...]
There is an alternative
One of our members, Ben and Jerry's, recently added a new blog post on their site. It is an excellent post and well worth a read. It is focussed on a project which has just come to an end in Bedford run by the King's Arms Project. This Alternatives to [...]
Linton camp not going ahead
At our last members' meeting we heard from the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group on their campaign to stop the opening of a new accommodation centre for people seeking asylum at RAF Linton. This was a group of local people who came together as they were concerned at this development. In standing [...]
Cross-Party call to re-consider Rwanda scheme
A group of MPs and Peers has called on the Home Secretary to “re-consider” the plan to send migrants to Rwanda. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) wrote to the Home Secretary warning of safety concerns and questioning the legality of the deal. In the letter, dated July 21, [...]