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.
Going Behind the Walls
Located on the Isle of Portland, off Weymouth in Dorset, the Verne epitomises the Government’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to detention. In this blog, Ruth Jacobson of [...]
Trafficked into detention
Trafficked people in detention are being denied the full protection of the Home Office’s flagship system for protecting victims of modern slavery, according to new research by Detention Action. Many victims [...]
Week 4: Prisons and Short Term Holding Facilities
We're almost halfway through #Unlocked17. From all over the UK, you've been tweeting, writing and sharing your selfies to tell us how you feel about detention, and to help spread [...]
The Verne IRC: on either side of the razor wire
Maddie Biddlecombe is a member of Verne Visitors Group in Portland and sent us this reflection. The Verne detention centre is set to close at the end of 2017. It [...]
Won’t somebody please think of the children
The impact of immigration detention is not confined behind the gates of the detention centres: it involves people's children, families, friends etc. Nick Watts is a child & family practitioner and co-founder [...]
“When you see injustice – speak out!” These Walls Must Fall in Manchester
Without people taking action, change won't happen. Luke Butterly of Right to Remain reports back on a recent campaign event of These Walls Must Fall which took place in Manchester. [...]
“The Verne is closing but for those of us who experienced it, it will always be open”
We are told that the Verne detention centre will be closed at the end of 2017. But is it really closing in the minds of those who were detained there? [...]
If I am ever detained
There is understandably huge interest in knowing what immigration detention centres look like: barbed wire and prohibition of cameras inside the centres increase people’s curiosity. But can you see the [...]
An open letter: “My name is Nobody”
For many involved in asylum and migration justice work (not for us!), immigration detention was a taboo subject for a long time and, in some quarters, it still is. One [...]
Parliamentary meeting on immigration detention on 16 November – is your MP attending?
This year's Unlocking Detention's theme is taking action, and the Detention Forum is supporting APPG on Refugees' parliamentary meeting on immigration detention on 16 November. Do you think your MP [...]
“No one has even thought of me or visited me”: Immigration detention in prisons
When we talk about immigration detention, of course we think of immigration detention centres. But hundreds of people are also detained as "immigration detainees" in many ordinary prisons. Ali McGinley [...]
Week 3: #Unlocked17 visits Brook House and Tinsley House
Between 30 October and 5 November, #Unlocked17 visited Brook House and Tinsley House, near Gatwick airport. Brook House has 448 beds, and Tinsley 119. When Tinsley House was established in [...]