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.
Julio y amigos: The impact of detention on the Latin American community in the UK
This year, the theme of Unlocking Detention is ‘friends and families’ and we're focusing on the often unreported 'ripple effect' of indefinite detention and the way this experience can have tragic [...]
Boundary Making and the Broad Ripples of Immigration Enforcement
About the Author: Melanie Griffiths is a former COMPAS DPhil student and is currently an ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the School of Sociology, Politics [...]
Week 6: #Unlocked16 visits Campsfield House
This week, Unlocking Detention shone a spotlight on Campsfield House detention centre in Kidlington, a village 7 miles from Oxford. Up to 282 men are locked up there. Campsfield House was originally [...]
Live Q&A with Christopher and Jose, both detained in Campsfield
This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Campsfield detention centre, run by Mitie, the largest single private provider of detention services to the Home Office. (In a first for our [...]
Stateless, unreturnable and detained in the UK
By Jan Brulc, head of communications for the European Network on Statelessness. This article was originally published as part of Unlocking Detention on the Justice Gap website. Peter is in [...]
Healthcare: a labyrinthine system. A Campsfield case study
By Liz Peretz, Campaign to Close Campsfield Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide People held in immigration detention centres are among the most vulnerable people in our society. Many detainees have suffered [...]
How detention split me and my brother in half
This year, the Unlocking Detention blog is particularly focusing on the impact of detention on an individual’s immediate social circle – their friends and family. This piece is written by [...]
Week 5: #Unlocked16 visits Harmondsworth
There's been lots of engagement with #Unlocked16 this week, as we visited the UK’s largest detention centre. Harmondsworth can hold up to 676 people, all men. Opened as a purpose-built [...]
Live Q&A with Justice, detained in Harmondsworth
This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Harmondsworth - the largest detention centre in the UK, with a capacity for 661 people, and once the 'spiritual' home of the now [...]
Entangled in Harmondsworth
By Silvia Maritati, Advocacy Coordinator at Detention Action. “People detained under the Immigration Act powers are unique among the prison population in that their future is entirely uncertain...The degree of [...]
Week 4 of #Unlocked16: Morton Hall
This week, Unlocking Detention visited Morton Hall in Lincolnshire. Morton Hall opened as an "immigration removal centre" in 2011, having previously been other kinds of prison for men, women and [...]
A footnote on Harmondsworth
As told by 'K'. Footnotes by Ciara Bottomley of Detention Action. The first time I was detained was in 2010. (See below: 1) I was in Harmondsworth then too. The centre [...]