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.
Live Q&A with Gil, detained in Dungavel
This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Dungavel detention centre, the only detention in Scotland and a site of much contention after the government announced plans earlier this year to [...]
The closure of Dungavel? The fight must continue
By Pinar Aksu. Pinar works with Migrant Voice as a Community Development worker in Glasgow and with Active Inquiry using Theatre of the Oppressed methods and is also a member [...]
Unlocking the future of detention in Scotland
By Kate Alexander, director of Scottish Detainee Visitors. It’s been a funny few months. Just a month before the beginning of this year’s Unlocking Detention tour of detention in the [...]
I’ll never forget . . .
Scottish Detainee Visitors asked their volunteer visitors to write a few sentences about a memorable experience they had while volunteering with them - visiting people detained in Dungavel detention centre. [...]
Week 8: #Unlocked16 visits Colnbrook
In this week of Unlocking Detention, we visited Colnbrook detention centre next to Heathrow airport (and the high-security neighbour of Harmondsworth). https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804977726901854209 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804986786837450754 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804622389749411840 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804618613520941057 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804388345887371264 https://twitter.com/MIDdetention/status/805087953009700864 https://twitter.com/MIDdetention/status/804640271828914176 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/804653844563042304 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/805014469944426496 [...]
Q&A with Ali, currently detained in Colnbrook
This interview with Ali, who is detained in Colnbrook, took place last week and we planned as usual to tweet the Q and A throughout the afternoon on the Friday [...]
Marking the Home Office’s homework on immigration detention: urgent improvement needed
By Jon Featonby, parliamentary manager at the Refugee Council and parliamentary lead for the Detention Forum. As Advent began last year, I was in the Houses of Parliament as part [...]
“A prison in all but name”
Nine months on from the death of Amir Siman Tov in Colnbrook IRC, Michael Goldin reflects on the man he knew. Michael is an alumni of the René Cassin Fellowship [...]
Week 7: #Unlocked16 visits Yarl’s Wood
Week 7 of Unlocking Detention saw us virtually visit Yarl's Wood detention centre, perhaps the best known of all the UK's sites of detention. Opened in 2001 at a cost [...]
Colnbrook, by post
This year, the theme of Unlocking Detention is ‘friends and families’ – we’re specifically focusing on the often unreported, or buried, ‘ripple effect’ of indefinite detention and the way this [...]
Q&A with Mayalex, currently detained in Yarl’s Wood
This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Yarl's Wood detention centre - perhaps the best known of all the UK's sites of detention, and which will once again be the [...]
When I sing, I sing for them. When I speak, I speak of them. When I shout, I am shouting about them.
By Jess Anslow, Coordinator of Yarl’s Wood Befrienders. Visiting women who are being indefinitely detained in Yarl’s Wood IRC is challenging. It is challenging because you witness injustice. Injustice coming from [...]