No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre: Twenty years ago on April 8th 2006 I was outside the two large detention centres on the Bath Road at Harmondsworth on the northern edge of Heathrow Airport. A protest there had been called by No Borders and among those protesting with them were the International Organisation of Iranian Refugees,
Detainees were kept way from the front of the building so they could not see the protes, but they could hear they were there.
It’s hard to find the text I wrote back in 2006 or the pictures, so I’ll include the text below along with a link to the start of the pictures.
No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre
Harmondsworth, London
The No Borders demonstration outside Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres – the two are separated only by a narrow road – was at times loud and noisy, so those kept in these secure prisons knew that they were receiving support, even though they were cleared from that side of the building so they could not hear the speeches. [Some who phone the protest clearly could hear them.]
Some demonstrators who went along a public footpath to a field at the back of the building were forcibly removed and detained for around an hour.
[Among those detained and kettled by police was a videographer, a fellow NUJ member, and when he showed his press card, police told him it wasn’t a real press card and refused to let him leave. He called up to me and a few other photographers asking one of us to come down and show them a press card, which is supposed to ensure that police let us get on with our job. I fished mine out from my pocket, then saw it had expired at the end of March, and put it back again. Another photographer went to his aid.
After around an hour the protesters were taken out from the kettle one by one and police demanded their names and addresses – threatending arrest if they did not give them – although the police had no power to do so.]
A number of the detainees actually did speak to protesters on their mobile phones [from inside Harmondsworth detention centre] and their calls were held to a microphone and relayed over the protester’s public address system. The detainees thanked the demonstrators for coming and also told us about the inhumane and arbitrary treatment they were receiving.
Many of those held have fled from violence and repression in their own countries, only to arrive here and find that immigration officials refused to listen to or believe the stories they told. Some have been held in detention for more than 3 years.
Detainees include some who have been living in this country for a number of years, working and paying taxes, setting up lives in this country and contributing to it. Then they are taken without prior warning and imprisoned in these units, sometimes more because the immigration service has targets to meet than anything to do with their case.
Possibly we need an immigration policy, although I’m not actually convinced. It’s an area where I have more faith in those market forces our governments now seem to worship than most. But whether or not we need one, if we have one it should be honest, transparent, just and efficient. At the moment it fails on every count.
Many of us are ashamed of the way our government has decided to let families and children in particular exist without proper support. Ashamed when we hear stories of families who get a knock on the door at 4am and are taken away in a matter of hours.Ashamed that we are sending people back to countries where we know they are almost certain to be imprisoned, tortured and possibly killed
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