We, the Yarl’s Wood Strikers, would like to meet with Yvette Cooper, Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Stuart McDonald and as many other members of the Home Affairs Committee as possible regarding the questions they will pose to Serco at the Select Committee hearing on Tuesday, 20 March.

We strongly feel that while Serco are tasked with the running of Yarl’s Wood it is ultimately the Home Office who is responsible for the misery we suffer. We want them to raise our demands to end indefinite detention, inadequate healthcare, the detention of vulnerable people, asylum seekers, and the detention of those the Home Office is not in a position to remove. We want to change the manner we are treated by the Home Office in general when handling our cases to make sure they respect us as human beings.

We have been striking for three weeks, since 21st February. We are striking with clear and achievable demands. We need the Home Office to be held to account for their actions and to be regulated in some way so that it will no longer break the law and abuse our rights with impunity.

We therefore call on the Home Affairs Select Committee meet with us before the questioning of Serco and to question the Home Office and Immigration Minister with regard to our demands, the UK detention regime and the condition we suffer in Yarl’s Wood.