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.
Immigration detention is mental torture
Content warning: graphic descriptions of suicide and self-harm. Image by @Carcazan This blog comes from Souleymane, a member of Freed Voices. Freed Voices are a group of experts-by-experience who are [...]
“There was a chance justice would be done”
In this #Unlocked18 blog, Mishka at Freed Voices (@FreedVoices) interviews Tamsin Alger, Deputy Director at Detention Action about her experience of the Detained Fast Track (DFT) strategic litigation and campaign. [...]
“I have seen that the detention system in the UK is broken”
Content warning: suicide. This blog comes from Rhiannon Prideaux, a visitor with the Morton Hall Detainee Visitors Group. I visited people detained at Morton Hall detention centre for around three [...]
“We are not outsiders, we are one of your own”: Hearing Voices peer support groups in detention
Content warning: hearing voices, mental distress. Image by @Carcazan On 21 November, the Freed Voices group invited Akiko Hart, the project manager of the Hearing Voices project at Mind in Camden, [...]
Double-header Q&A: DAK and Seed answer your questions from Harmondsworth IRC
Image by @Carcazan This week, we spoke to two people detained in Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC), DAK and Seed (not their real names), who spent over an hour answering questions [...]
“I cannot do anything from here”: LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in detention
Content warning: suicide. This blog comes from Gabriella Bettiga, Legal Officer at UKLGIG (UK Gay and Lesbian Immigration Group). You can find them on Twitter at @UKLGIG Among those held [...]
“Allowing people to see what might be possible”: Volunteering in detention
Content warning: torture, rape. Image by @Carcazan This two-part blog features reflections from two volunteers with JRS UK, who support people detained in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), The [...]
Three years after Moroccan Jew’s death in detention, why no inquest?
Content warning: suicide, death. This piece comes from Hannah Swirsky, Campaigns Officer at René Cassin. It was originally published on Jewish News. Immigration detention has again reached national news after [...]
Week 5: #Unlocked18 visits Campsfield House
Last week, #Unlocked18 visited Campsfield House IRC near Oxford. Since it opened in 1993, tens of thousands of people have been detained here indefinitely. The centre has also been the [...]
“I regularly speak to people who are in absolute despair”
Content warning: torture, trafficking. In the second of a two-part series from Detention Action, volunteer Mary-Ann talks about what she’s learnt from supporting people detained in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook Immigration [...]
“We both hoped there wouldn’t be a next visit”: The paradox of visiting detention
In the first of a two-part series from Detention Action, volunteer Anthony talks about his time visiting people detained in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), near Heathrow airport. [...]
The voiceless place
Maddy Crowther is Co-Executive Director of Waging Peace and Article 1, which support Sudanese asylum-seekers and refugees to build meaningful lives in the UK. They run a Sudanese Visitors’ Group supporting [...]