New "Barbed Wire Britain" network to stop immigration detention
A UK Anti Detention Network was set up in January to try to halt the massive increase in immigration detention in Britain.
It is made up of local campaigns in the neighbourhood of places of detention – detention centres and prisons – and national bodies such as the Coalition of Anti deportation Campaigns, the Joint Council for the Welfare of immigrants and the Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers.
The Network will have its second meeting on 10th March after the demonstration in Cambridge on the anniversary of the opening of the 400-place Oakington "reception centre" outside the city. A proposal to adopt the name (and website address) "Barbed Wire Britain" will be taken.
Why another network?
In the run-up to the general election the government seems determined to prove that it is tougher than all comers when it comes to stopping people who wish to enter the UK, particularly those seeking political asylum (about the only way you can enter Britain now from countries with a majority black population).
For its part the Network is determined that this development – perhaps the biggest-ever internment of innocent people in peacetime – shall not go unchallenged.
It is scandalous that so many people should be locked up, without charge or conviction, without written reason being given, without the say so of a court of law, and without any time limit whatsoever.
In these respects all detainees – including those in free-association regimes of detention centres – are treated worse than people convicted of a crime.
The vast majority of immigration detainees are people who are seeking political asylum in this country and a large proportion of them have escaped traumatic situations only to be met with abuse, not a safe haven, on arrival in this country.
It is estimated that on arrival an asylum seeker stands a 1 in 8 chance of being sent straight to detention.
There is no national network dedicated to opposing immigration detention, a government policy which is arguably a cornerstone of immigration control and denial of the human right to asylum, and a case of institutional racism if ever there was one.
The Network’s programme includes
A series of demonstrations–locally organised but with outside support–at all major places of detention (basically, those listed elsewhere in this report)–including construction sites and "designated prisons".
Local public meetings to publicise the issue
A national media launch in mid March
A web site to be set up in March
Publication of a map of places of detention in the UK
Building on the local campaigns for a national profile which may include events in London, open letters, a mega concert with big names
Going to see detainees and offering support–through the local group of the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID).
Please forward any further suggestions to the contact/s listed below.
The government’s building programme
Detention centres being built include Yarl’s Wood (or Yarlswood) (900 places) near the villages of Thurleigh and Clapham north-east of Bedford, and a new centre at Harmondsworth by Heathrow airport (550 places).
Like all detention centres, Yarl’s Wood will be a profit-making enterprise; it will be run by Group 4, which along with the US company Wackenhutt runs the UK’s detention centres.
In addition the government has recently doubled the number of immigration detainees in ordinary prisons.
A wing at Lindholme (Doncaster) has been converted to immigration detention use and 10 other prisons have been "designated" to take 50 immigration detainees each. Dungavel detention prison (150 beds) near Lanark is due to open in May.
January 2001: all-time record numbers detained
On 31st January 2000, 1,565 people were detained under 1971 Immigration Act powers, according to government figures.
Of these, 414 people were held in detention centres – 165 in Campsfield (Oxford), 117 in Tinsley (Gatwick), 83 in Harmondsworth and a total of 49 in Dover harbour, Heathrow (Queen’s Buil-ding) and Longport.
In addition 231 were held in the 400-place Oakington "reception centre".
The total number of 920 detained in prisons included 177 in Rochester, 117 in Haslar (Gosport), 87 in Lindholme (Doncaster), 68 in Wandsworth, 67 in Belmarsh (Greenwich), 58 in High Down (Guildford), 46 in Winchester, 36 each in Bullingdon (near Oxford) and Liverpool, 30 in Holme "House" (Stockton-on-Tees), and 27 at Gateside.
Apart from Rochester, Haslar and Lindholme, these prisons have only recently been "designated" by the Home Office and they account for the bulk in the recent increase in numbers detained.
Of the total detained, 71 were in ones and twos in some 40 other prisons around the country.
Two prisons that do not feature in the figures above–Cardiff and Elmley in Kent–are nevertheless included in the Home Office’s list of its current "detention estate", of which the total capacity is 1,842 beds.
Detainees share cells with convicted prisoners
The Home Office says most immigration detainees in prisons are held in separate wings.
But in Winchester, Elmley and in most places where numbers detained are small, immigration detainees are held in the same wing as prisoners on remand and awaiting sentence.
An asylum seeker recently released from HMP Belmarsh in south-east London reports that, contrary to what the Home Office says, asylum seekers are held on the same wing as convicted criminals, with whom they have to share cells.
They remain locked in when convicted criminals are let out to have exercise or watch TV, sometimes for 24 hours a day.
They are limited to one 30-minute session at the canteen a week, cannot receive faxes or phone calls from their solicitor, and can make only one 5-minute phone call a day.
When released they are not issued with a rail travel warrant – prison authorities state that only remand or convicted prisoners are entitled.
Why "Barbed Wire Britain"?
The Network is named after a series of European conferences publicising the spread of immigration detention across Europe.
The most recent such conference was held in Oxford last September (see Socialist Outlook No. 38).
Now the 94-page conference report ("Barbed Wire Europe Conference Against Detention") is available through the Network – see contacts at end of story.
It gives a country-by-country run-down on the current situation and struggles to end detention.
Help
If you are near one of these places of detention and would like to join the campaign of opposition (or if you know someone else who would) please phone the Network on 01865 558145,
or e-mail [email protected] .
Copies of the "Barbed Wire Europe" report mentioned above are available for £5 (p&p included) from 40 Richmond Terrace, Oxford OX1 2JJ.