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Campaigners with messages outside HOME

Two These Walls Must Fall events in Manchester for Refugee Week

Last night saw two great #TheseWallsMustFall events in Manchester for Refugee Week. People engaged in a performance protest raising awareness about detention at HOME, with the help of Virtual Migrants. It highlighted the injustice of immigration detention and was a tribute to the 120 women on hunger strike during March this year. Now @HOME_mcr with @VirtualMigrants @wallsmustfall. Hostile Detainment performance protest raising awareness about detention in the UK. #RefugeeWeek2018 #TheseWallsMustFall pic.twitter.com/dGg5IuplDq— Community Arts NW (@comartsnw)… Read more »

event flier with pictures of the acts

Celebration of Resistance: London, June 23

As part of Refugee Week 2018, we are teaming up with Quakers in Britain, STAR, and Freed Voices to celebrate people’s resistance to the injustice of immigration detention and the ‘hostile environment’.

Opelo next to a mural with outsretched wings

Support Opelo and Florence Kgari, detained in Yarl’s Wood

Opelo Kgari and her mother have lived in the UK for 14 years – since Opelo was just 13. For almost three months they’ve been detained at Yarl’s Wood detention centre, uncertain of their future. Opelo was detained in January 2018 following a routine ‘signing’ appointment at her local immigration office in Stoke-on-Trent. This is something that tens of thousands of people have to do every week, or month, while they wait for a decision… Read more »

people arm in arm at Yarl's Wood

Hunger For Freedom: surround Yarl’s Wood on March 24

A collective of grassroots groups is mobilising for a rally outside Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre on Saturday 24 March, in solidarity with the #HungerForFreedom strikers inside. Hundreds of people will surround the notorious detention centre in Bedfordshire, calling for the place to be closed, the people to be released and for an end to immigration detention. On February 21st, 120 people detained at Yarl’s Wood started a hunger strike. The strikers have announced an… Read more »

women in the snow at the London solidarity action

Hunger For Freedom day of action: one month on

This Wednesday 21st March will mark one full month since people inside Yarl’s Wood began their strike actions. On 21st February, 120 people detained at Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire started a hunger strike. Since then, strikers have been refusing food, refusing to work, and refusing to use services inside detention, with a list of demands against the detention system. Read the demands here. There have been actions in support of the strikers in… Read more »

Manchester and Liverpool stand in solidarity with the Yarl’s Wood strikers

By Lauren Cape-Davenhill, These Walls Must Fall campaigns coordinator At the University and College Union International Woman’s Day rally in Liverpool last week, the These Walls Must Fall banner made its way through sunny streets with about 400 passionate and noisy academics, students and university staff. On arriving by the waterfront just down the road from a jaunty statue of the Beatles and next to a ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ bus, it was time to bring… Read more »

Harmondsworth detention centre

Shocking inspection report of Harmondsworth detention centre

An inspection report published today reveals the dark, unacceptable nature of immigration detention in the UK. Harmondsworth is Europe’s largest immigration detention centre, with a capacity to hold up to 676 people for the purposes of immigration administration and enforcement. A new inspection report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons has found  “considerable failings” in safety and respect for detainees, people being held for excessively long periods, and in contravention to the detention rules that are… Read more »

Video: Yarl’s Wood protest at the Home Office

On Wednesday 28 February, over 200 people braved the freezing weather and took to the streets in London in solidarity with the men and women on hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre. They gathered outside the Home office headquarters. Solidarity actions also took place outside of Home Office buildings in Leeds and Glasgow. Over loudspeakers, one of the hunger strikers spoke to the crowd in London by phone: “You’re fighting for our liberty… Read more »

hands holding sign saying solidarity with the hunger strikers

4 actions you can take to support the Yarl’s Wood strikers

On Wednesday 21st of February a large group of women and men held in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre organised a coordinated 3-day hunger strike. The demands have been posted on the Detained Voices website. This post first appeared on the SOAS Detainee Support website. The demands of the strikers include: Amnesty for those who have lived in the UK 10 years and above End indefinite detention – Detention periods shouldn’t be longer than 28… Read more »