immigration detention centre

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood – September 2016

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood: Saturday 10th September 2016 was one of quite a few protests I photographed at the Immigration Detention Centre at Yarls Wood, and it followed a similar pattern to the others.

The main difference to most other occasions I went there was the weather, with some heavy and rather persistent rain, which failed to dampen the energy of the protesters but did make the event more hazardous.

The 20ft high fence around the centre – essentially a prison – is at the bottom of a slope in the field where the protest took place. From higher up the slope you can see the upper floors of one of the detention blocks though the top 10ft of thick wire metal fencing.

Around the base of the fence is a concrete base several feet wide, and in front of that is a short level grass-covered section before the ground rises. In the rain the level section became waterlogged mud and climbing the slope became extremely treacherous, and nearly impossible and I had to walk some yards to one side where the slope was less steep.

Between speeches over the public address system the protesters had brought so the women inside the prison could hear them clearly – even those who the prison staff had prevented from coming to the rooms facing the fence – people kicked and banged the lower 10 feet of metal sheet fencing – which made a very satisfactory loud noise.

My account on My London Diary was short – so here it is in full, although there is more information in some of the captions to the many images in the post there:

Hundreds of protester braved persistent rain to stand for several hours in a protest organised by Movement for Justice waving and shouting support to the women asylum seekers held indefinitely inside Yarl’s Wood, who responded enthusiastically by shouting and waving back from the prison blocks behind the high fence, hindered by windows that hardly open.

Several spoke to the protesters on their mobile phones, some telling how Serco security guards had prevented them from coming to the windows and were threatening those who greeted the protesters with solitary confinement, and there were speeches by a procession of women who had been held, some for a year or more, inside the immigration prison.

*No Limits – Sin Fronteras states the Latin American Young Women’s banner*

Immigration detainees are held ‘indefinitely’ with no release date until their cases are determined. One of those then inside was 42-year-old Mabel Gawanas who had then been held in Yarls Wood for over 2 years, having fled Namibia after being tortured and raped. She has an an underage British daughter and several health problems. She was eventually released after being held one day short of three years.

*As well as the women there were some families on the lower floor*

Many of those who spoke had been detained inside Yarls Wood – and were able to speak to friends still inside and to encourage them to keep up the fight. Most who do fight will succeed eventually, but too many who should be granted asylum are being deported – and often back into very dangerous situations.

*Sisters Uncut and others set off flares on the hill facing Yarl’s Wood immigration prison.*

By the time the protest was coming to an end my boots were encased in heavy clay mud. I scraped off most of it on the long walk back to the coach, but still had to remove my boots and put them in a plastic bag before getting into the coach in my socks. But I was pleased with many of the pictures I had made and I think the bad weather brought out the best in the protesters.

Many more pictures at Shut Down Yarl’s Wood.

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Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – 2018

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – Yarl’s Wood immigration prison, near Bedford

The protest outside Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre on Saturday 14th July 2018 was the fourteenth on the remote site built on a wartime air base organised by Movement for Justice, although I had been covering protests in and around London calling for the closure of this and the other immigrant prisons for over 10 years.

I’d been at most of the previous thirteen at the site, although I had missed the first, largely because of transport problems – living outside London it wasn’t practical for me to travel on one of the coaches organised from London. In July 2018 I came with my bike on the train to Bedford and then cycled the 5 hilly miles to the event.

This protest was the smallest of them all I had attended there, with only a little over a hundred protesters. Many of those present had themselves been held for some time in this or other detention centres.

Yarl’s Wood was being used to hold women and a few families, and previous protests had been widely supported by other groups including many feminist groups, who on this occasion stayed away. Later some other groups organised protests but on a smaller scale than the previous protests.

*and through a gate into the field next to the detention centre*

A woman who had been part of Movement for Justice and active in earlier protests here had left the group, complaining bitterly about the way the group had treated her. She had received widespread support including from some other former members leading to many boycotting this protest. I knew both her and others in MfJ and commented: “However justified her personal complaint, it revealed little if anything about the group that was not already public knowledge, and MfJ has played a major role in protests against our racist immigration detention system, and still seems to be supported by the former detainees.”

You can read about that public knowlege of MfJ on Wikipedia and on the complaints on the “Speak The Plain Truth” blog. I was saddened by the dispute but more so at the effect it had in weakening this and related campaigns – and I had never had any illusions about the nature of the organisation which I had first met in the 1990s.

*A woman looks out at the protesters who were obviously welcomed*

The protest followed the usual pattern, meeting on the public highway and, after a rally there marching a mile or so along a public footpath to a field next to the prison and overlooking a part of the site across a 20 foot high metal fence.

*Others hold messages in the windows which only open a narrow slit*

The lower 10ft of the fence is solid metal sheeting but the upper 10ft is a thick metal gauze (out of focus in the picture above.) Standing back on a slope I could see women held inside greeting the protesters. Guards inside had apparently tried to keep them away from the windows – even enticing them to another part of the building with offers of free ice-cream!

They could hear the protest and know that there were people outside who supported them, and some inside were able to speak to us over a mobile phone link. Some of those who spoke outside were able to greet friends still inside – some are held for long periods, with one released a day under three years.

*Mabel had spent 3 years inside and knew many of those still held there*

Most asylum seekers are genuine and are eventually released, but the Home Office has long appeared to have a policy of putting as many hurdles as possible in their way, often demanding records that are impossible for the detainees to provide – a similar tactic to that used in the Windrush scandal. Many were deported under illegal “fast-track” procedures – and MfJ has also managed to take legal action along with others to stop some individuals being deported.

*Between speeches many banged on the fence to make a great deal of noise*

Most of our legal system is based on the principle that people are innocent until they are tried and proven guilty. But our asylum system works in the opposite way, assuming claims are fraudulent and demanding that asylum seekers prove they are genuine.

It was hot in the sun and I got tired. The protest was still continuing as I got on my bike to ride back to Bedford station.

More pictures from Saturday 14th July 2018 at Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Movement For Justice at Yarls Wood – 2015

Movement For Justice at Yarls Wood – On Saturday 7th November 2015 Movement for Justice organised a large protest with other groups to show solidarity with the women locked up inside Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre and to demand that all such detention prisons be shut down.

MFJ Meet To March to Yarl’s Wood – Twinwoods Business Park

Yarl’s Wood was built on a former wartime airfield in remote countryside five or six miles from the centre of Bedford, perhaps chosen in part for its remoteness, which makes it difficult for visitors or protesters to get there.

But Movement for Justice – MfJ – and others had organised coaches from around the country, including eight from London as well as one from Bedford Station to bring people with others arriving by car, taxi or bicycle. The road leading to the prison is private, but people were able to meet on a public road around a mile away outside the main entrance to the business park there.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive there was lively rally with a great deal of dancing, singing and chanting, keeping everyone’s spirits high, and keeping us warm as a chilly wind with occasional spots of rain swept across the open site on top of a high plateau.

Among those at the protest were many immigrants who had themselves been detained at this or other detention centres around the country while waiting for a decision to be taken on their asylum claims. Sometimes this takes several years and those who are taken to prisons such as these are held indefinitely, never knowing if or when they will be released or taken under guard to be forcibly deported.

Many inside have fled their countries after violent attacks including sexual assault and rape and deserve humane treatment not imprisonment. Few if any pose any real threat and could be housed outside, often with friends or relatives in this country. If they were allowed to work many would make a positive contribution. They would also be much more able to contact their solicitors and collect information to support their asylum cases than from inside the detention centres where access is limited.

Instead the Home Office locks them away and sometimes seems to have forgotten them and lost the key. One woman was detained for a couple of days less than three years before being released – after which she returned with the MfJ and spoke at protests which give those still inside some hope and remind them that they have not entirely been forgotten.

More at MFJ Meet Outside Yarl’s Wood.

MfJ ‘Set Her Free’ protest at Yarl’s Wood

As well as MfJ, Sisters Uncut, Lesbians & Gays support the Migrants, All Africans Women’s Groups, Glasgow Unity and others had come to join in the protest. Eventually with around a thousand people gathered it was time to march, though a few coaches had not yet arrived.

We set off on the long walk to the detention centre, with banners and placards, a short distance along the road and then down the public footpath which runs through a couple of fields and across another track, and into a field on the north side of the prison, about a mile from where the campaigners had gathered.

Here there was a fairly steep rise a few feet up a hill from the 20 foot high fence around the detention centre and from the top of this we could see the upper floor windows, some of which had women at them, though only through the dense thick wire grid of the upper half of the fence.

The windows do not have bars, but only open a few inches, but this was enough for the women inside to put their hands through and hold towels and clothing to greet the protesters. Some managed to hold out messages: one read ‘We came to seek Refuge. Not to be locked up’ and another ‘We are from torture. We Need Freedom’.

The lower 10 feet of the fence is made of stout metal panels, and beating or kicking on these makes a very loud noise. Later some protesters brought up rope ladders so they could hold placards and banners on the more open top of the fence so they could be seen by the women inside.

The prisoners are allowed to have phones which they need to contact their solicitors and advisers over their cases and some were able to use these to communicate with the protesters and to have their voices relayed over the PA system the protesters had brought.

There was a heavy rain shower during the protest, and the ground which was already muddy and with large puddles became very treacherous and getting up from the concrete and narrow flat area at the bottom of the fence became difficult. But soon the sun was back out again.

Most of those who spoke at the event were former detainees, some of whom had friends who were still inside the immigration prison.

The protest was still continuing when I had to leave and the low winter sun was beginning to make photography more difficult. It seemed a long and rather lonely journed as I made my way back to the road, boots heavy with mud. But I was free to go, while women who had come to this country seeking asylum from danger and violence in their own countries were still locked up by a hostile and unfeeling government.

More at MfJ ‘Set Her Free’ protest at Yarl’s Wood.