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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Around 100 women in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre are protesting at their continuing incarceration. Their demands are listed below. The protest coincided with a visit to the notorious centre by Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abboot MP. You can read a report of that visit at the Guardian here. For up to date info and news, follow @detainedvoices on Twitter and check the website. 1. Shorter bail request periods Legally it should 3-5 days, however… Read more »
Campaigners are working with their local elected representatives to pass council motions against immigration detention. Here are some tips on getting a council to support the campaign in this way
A great way of raising awareness of detention as a local issue, and showing that local people are against it, is getting a letter published in a local newspaper. Here’s some tips.
Does your MP know about immigration detention? Will they support the campaign? Get in touch with them. You can use this template letter, or adapt it with your own words
This weekend (9th-11th Feb), Right to Remain will be at Lush Oxford Street raising money for the These Walls Must Fall campaign! In the run up to Valentine’s Day, we will be in the largest Lush Shop in the world explaining our work and selling special edition Hand & Body Moisturiser Charity Pots. A key aspect of These Walls Must Fall is having migrants impacted by detention to be front and centre of campaigning. These… Read more »
Back where it all began… In November 2016, These Walls Must Fall hosted their first open meetings at Cross Street Chapel, to discuss, plan and start building a new kind of local campaign against detention in Greater Manchester. This was just over a year ago, and under the shadow of the detention local activist Dianne Ngoza*, people discussed the open-source, decentralised, non-directive approach of the campaign, and explored what the challenges and opportunities might be… Read more »
On January 10, Amnesty UK officially launched their new report ‘A matter of routine – the use of immigration detention in the UK’. Right to Remain writes about the launch: In launching this report, Amnesty UK has further strengthened the consensus – including most major political parties, human rights groups, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons – of those condemning and calling for serious change to the UK’s indefinite immigration detention system. [Amnesty’s] research examined Home… Read more »
On a cold snowy night in Newcastle last week, there was a great turnout for our These Walls Must Fall training session. There were students, activists and experts-by-experience on detention in the room – and some were all three. After equipping people with some basic facts about detention – what it is, who it affects and why its wrong – the session turned to local action against detention. There were great suggestions made on thinking… Read more »