Author: DV

A friend of mine died this morning in Morton Hall

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Basically, a guy I knew died today in Morton Hall. We called him ‘the Doctor’. He was living in the UK for 27 years now. He got arrested for false documents and sentenced to 6 months in jail. After that, they brought him to Morton Hall where he stayed for 2 years.

The guy, I knew today, is a really, really nice person. He exercised a lot. He was very fit. So when he got sick on Monday, it was really confusing because he was a very fit guy.

He fell down and was foaming at the mouth in his cell. Some guys called the nurse around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The nurse came and then left and he got worse. They came back at 6 o’clock. And the ambulance came there about 7 o’clock. And he died this morning ( on Wednesday)

As I understand, when they were in the hospital the doctors called the home office and asked for his release papers. I thought this was really cold hearted because he has been applying for bail for a long time and only when he was on his death bed did they give him release papers.

He’s a friend of mine. I’ve known him since June when I got into this place. He was really a nice person and was always willing to help people. He would just help people through the goodness of his heart for nothing in return. He was a really nice person. You don’t often find people like that. When you find them it’s like a diamond in the rough, you know.

He’s also the type of person who you can talk to if you’re stressed out in detention. He would talk to you and say keep strong when he saw that you were depressed or stressed out. When a guy like that leaves us like this, it puts a lot of stress on the people who really connected with him on a spiritual level.

You see, if he was given bail and left here. People would have been proud and happy. But the way he left, really weighs heavy on your heart.

The media needs to know about this. This place is a stressful place. He’s been punished. We don’t have anyone to stand for us. I just want the home office to start helping people and stop being so vindictive and punishing people. There are not all bad people here and people deserve a second chance. They are breaking people’s spirits.

 

Dear Rt Hon Amber Rudd

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17 September 2016

The Rt Hon Amber Rudd
The Home Secretary
UK Parliament
Email: Rudda@parliament.uk

Dear Rt Hon Amber Rudd

We are currently being detained at Yarl’s Wood Immigration and Removal Centre in Bedford and the following are concerns we have whilst in detention. This marks the 8th day where most of the residents have taken to a hunger strike in the hope that you will look into our concerns and advise accordingly:

1. No privacy – documents and email:
• Many detainees have noted that SERCO officers read emails and other documents when they are “monitoring PC use”. Many a time, the officers have stated that they are not aware of individuals’ cases but can often be caught reading documents before printing. The IT rules state that only documents that help with cases can be printed, but some of the officers are known to have a good read ( instead of just glancing) before printing the documents and therefore are privy to sensitive information about detainees and some officers have been heard gossiping about detainees. The result of this behaviour makes some detainees prime targets for discrimination. The same applies to emails; officers can read what detainees are writing which also amounts to violation of privacy.

2. Pages missing from decisions and legal bundles/documents
• Some detainees have noted that when immigration officers hand documents to them, there are often pages missing e.g. responses from the law courts which inform that ‘judicial reviews have been received by the courts and are being considered as further submissions and evidences towards individual cases.

3. Ruling on decisions
• It has become apparent that when ruling on decisions, immigration officers quote a lot of information available in the country information guidance but yet their final decisions do not reflect or account for that information and therefore it appears that the use of country information guidance is an exercise by the immigration officers for the sole purpose of ticking a box.
• Some decisions have also been made by immigrations officers who do not have adequate training. One of these officers was working as a hair dresser at Yarl’s Wood IRC Salon in December 2015 and is now working in the DAC Yarl’s Wood fast track team making decisions which could mean life or death for the concerned asylum claimants. This is clear abuse of immigration powers which shows complete disregard of human life and condones and encourages unqualified employees to make decisions beyond their intellectual comprehension.

4. Unlawful removal
• The SERCO officers are notably using excessive force when enforcing removals by ambushing detainees and taking them to Kingfisher (which is an isolation unit) before a flight or forcibly taking detainees to reception and handing them over to Tascor escorts. It is apparent that the use of excessive force is exercised on black detainees mainly. At no point has there been use of excessive force on a Caucasian detainee, leading to the conclusion that black detainees are being discriminated against.
• In 2015, Channel 4 aired a recorded video footage of SERCO officers using vulgar and racist language to refer to black female detainees. During one specific removal, a diabetic detainee being transported for removal to Zimbabwe was not given her medication to maintain her diabetic status to the onward country. Given travel by air to Zimbabwe is at least 10+ hours, the detainee’s health was highly comprised and if the removal had succeeded, the consequences could have been dire.
• There has been several cases where detainees being removed are currently engaging with the mental health teams both here and the community before they were detained yet the immigration laws again continues to detain and further remove people with serious Post Traumatic Stress Disorders and other forms of mental health.
• During enforced removals to segregation and/or country of origin, there is deliberate attempt to intimidate and frustrate a detainee so as to force a reaction. During removals to country of origin, there are at least 5 escorts to one detainee. Not only is this intimidating to the detainee, it costs the tax payer a fortune and often the escorts are more concerned about having a paid holiday at the expense of the tax payer and have no regard for the human rights they are breaching. When the removal fails, excessive force and mistreatment is used as punishment for the missed holiday opportunity. As recent as August 2016, on the way to the airport, Tascor escorts could be heard talking about the places they would visit on the way back from Zimbabwe via South Africa and how excited they were. The detainee in question has no family or relatives in Zimbabwe and if the attempted removal had succeeded, she would have left her husband, children and grandchildren with no possibility of ever being re-united with them. She, like many detainees was expected to maintain a relationship with her family over skype and social media which is what is quoted on most of the refusal decisions given by the UK Visas and Immigration when determining cases. This is just one example what happens to detainees. In some cases, the removals are enforced when there are still applications pending with the home office which makes the removal and use of excessive force, unlawful.
• During removal from association, there is at least 6-10 SERCO officers.

5. Detainees who are not fit to be detained
• The Home Office against its own rules and guidelines and the mental health act, continue to detain individuals suffering from mental health issues and victims of rape and torture. In the past 7 months, there have been two detainees with cancer detained at Yarl’s Wood and numerous with mental health issues who are on an ACDT care plan that does not work but is maintained again to tick boxes.

6. Social media
• Despite numerous reports conducted by independent consultants, social media continues to be banned at Yarl’s Wood IRC. On numerous occasions, the immigration officers have instructed the IT departments to refuse requests for detainees to print evidence photos from facebook. It is also apparent that these refusals are directed towards specific individuals, whilst others have been allowed to print facebook photos. The Home Office is notorious for pointing out that people can maintain relationship via social media but then deny that right to detainees i.e. facebook, instagram, skype etc. have all been banned.

7. Home office delaying decision making for under 19’s
• The home office is delaying decision making for the under 19’s deliberately with the sole purpose of rejecting their applications when they turn 19 and then detaining them. These young detainees who should be in college continuing with their studies are separated from their families and brought to detention where like all other detainees, they face uncertain futures and indefinite detention.

8. Injections during removals
• This marks 8 months since being detained and there has been two occasions where 2 individuals being removed to Zimbabwe (which in fact do not have a re-entry treaty with the United Kingdom thus should not be removing or deporting failed asylum seekers) remember being escorted to the reception to be handed over to Tascor escorts and after being given a drink slept until they were on transit in Nairobi before their onward travel finally to Zimbabwe. We still keep in contact with at least one of this former detainee.

9. Unlawful detention of mothers with British Children and/or partners of British Citizens
• There have been several individuals who are detained for long periods of time but they are either mothers, primary carers or partners to British and/or EU Citizens. This is a deliberate attempt to separate families which in the long term would go on to create dysfunctional society as the people being relied upon to instil discipline in families are being unlawfully removed. When a removal is carried out, it carries a re-entry ban of 10 years minimum. Some of these intended removals are individuals who have been habitually in the United Kingdom for over 10 years and when the removal is carried out, they are only allowed to take out 20kgs on personal items after accumulating businesses and even personal effects in excess of these 20kgs cannot be taken out when this removal is effected, unlawfully or otherwise.

10. Discrimination of same-sex partnerships
• Wrong decisions have been arrived at on same-sex relationships because to date there is no measure of how ‘gay’ a person is supposed to look or behave. The same country which prides itself at human rights has gone on to discriminate by disbelieving that these relationships are genuine and subsisting.

We would be most grateful if you could look into the concerns we have raised and we know it is in your power to order an amnesty.

We are ready to settle many of the migrants who are lost at sea or displaced by war but being very flippant to the individuals who have contributed economically to this country.
Thank you for taking time to read our letter.

Yours Sincerely
(please see attached the signatures of current detainees).
cc by email to The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon Theresa May (mayt@parliament.uk)

I am loosing sense with reality

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I am writing this letter to ask for your help and to inform you of what is happening to me every day and night, night time is the worst. I have demons in my head and unfortunately the Home Office triggered them and now I am suffering daily.

I am loosing sense with reality, I don’t know what is real or not real any more. My detention room gets very cold and I find myself on a wet floor; sometime it is a nightmare and sometimes I woke up on the floor, and sometimes it is very real like a scene from a movie. I am seeing people hanging from the ceilings, mobs setting people on fire, people hacked to death with pangas. Sometimes I smell the burning of a person under a pile of tyres. I hear gunshots and it feels like I am running away from the police. I am seeing a lot of blood and teargas smoke with young people running and screaming. I am hearing voices shouting ‘Don’t just stand there run! You are going to be next!’

Sometimes my head feels very hot and feels like someone can just cut-open the scalp and pour ice, just to cool it off. My ears are buzzing all the time, feeling sick, dizzy and loss of appetite. I sweat and tremble when asleep. And sometimes I find it hard to breath, like I am choking and my heart beats very fast. I am seeing people dangling from the ceiling, I am seeing the chair in my room as a torture chair, I am scared of sitting on it at night. My door is locked from 9pm until 8am and hearing the guards walk at night, the rattling of keys, the opening of the doors at night, door and windows banging frightens me. I wake-up from nightmares only to be frightened by the rattling of keys, doors and windows banging. I suffer from flashbacks and when I come back to reality I am frightened by my cell and officers passing and keys rattling.

I am powerless because I can’t do anything to stop these things tormenting me at night and sometimes during the day. I am trying to avoid certain areas and situations but detention is not helping because it brings back the same pictures and smell I experienced in South Africa during the days of apartheid. I was detained for political reasons and forced to watch people dangling from the ceiling, people being kicked and beat up. In late 2014, when I went to check progress of my case against death threats, I watched helplessly as the police in my country kick, stump, and beat a suspect senselessly on the floor.

The Home Office want to pursue removal when I am suffering from these mental and psychological problems which they have triggered by keeping me in detention for so long and subjected me to night-transportation which is very similar to South Africa’s style of transporting political activist (two or three white officers transporting one black detainee). They have reawakened years of apartheid torture and they must offer me treatment not detention.

It has taken years to heal from the apartheid torture past, my British children and ex-wife helped a lot. I t will take a long time to heal from the reawakened torture past and that cannot happen whilst I continue in detention because UK detention bears similarities with South Africa apartheid detention regime. Years of healing have been undone by detention traumas.

We all will continue this protest for 3 days

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Hello sir,

in my centre I get information about all this things that the Detention centres should by shutdown, my and my other friends how are in this centre started protest yesterday and all day we didn’t eat anything, and the big news is one of boy he attempt suicide yesterday in afternoon, that boy was in our room, the officers says that he was in so worried about his case that’s wye he do like this but we know that even he didn’t eat anything for 4 days and not even one officer come and ask him and not help him why he doing like this, no one come in our room to check him because they have all information about everybody about food.

We all will continue this protest  for 3 days, but we also hopeless either the government will do something for us because inside the Centre we cant trust to any of the staff member, there behaviour is like they are kings and we are slaves. If we ask for something for help with anything they cant behave like to helpful. they act like they didn’t received no wages and all they do there jobs like charity. And all they are doing and also giving food and medicines from there own pocket.

There are so many detainees here for more than 10 months and some of 7 months and some of 6 months even most of them are without any risen they didn’t apply for any case not for Asylum not for bail nothing anything else but after a long time they spend here the Home Office release them, and mostly detainees they apply for Asylum including me the Home Office didn’t do anything for them and they are struggling with the non human behaviour of staff.

Day by day everybody becoming like mentally ill.

And if someone want to apply for case the home Office ask for money, this is a common sense that a person have no right to work and how he can pay a big fee for his legal right for his case, and inside the centre if someone want to work then Home Office pay them £1 per hour, how can it right a person work like this and pay a lot fee for his case, its means that person need to work for life time to pay his fee, same as if a detainee want his medical report from inside the Health and Care they tell to pay £10 for that, and they refuse to check someone because they says we have only 2 Doctors here, how can only 2 Doctors can check 600 peoples in one centre.

Same person not allowed work outside but allowed work inside. why somebody spend his precious time of his life for nothing.

We have a big hope about you, and you can help us .
thank you so much.

Kind Regard.

Today is the strike day is against detention.

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Today is the strike day is against detention. Today is a strike day all over Europe and in the UK against detention. We need justice. People are here for 12 months, 15months. I’ve been here 12 months. There is a person who is married and her husband is in detention. That is not fair.

More than freedom we want justice.

Right now there are a hundred plus people in the Court yard number 4. Nobody had lunch and nobody will go to dinner. We have been shouting.

In the meantime, a man has cut his wrist in the court yard. He lay down on the floor and became unconscious. We pressed the buzzers to get help and no one was answering them. It wasted a lot of time. We got some officers they came saw and went to away to bring more officers. They made everyone go inside. We can see through the window that he is still there on the floor.

I’m calling from Harmondsworth and I am talking to you on behalf of most of the detainees here.

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I’m calling from Harmondsworth and I am talking to you on behalf of most of the detainees here. They are sitting by me and all are together. There are about 60 people around here.

Most people are suffering from medical and mental problems like depression and anxiety. I feel myself feelings of suffocation and depressions and bad dreams. A lot of us are on sleeping pill prescribed by the doctor here.

About 90% of people are on medication for anxiety. A lot people have experience torture before coming here and they have told the doctors and the home office is not accepting the reports of the certified doctor here.

I am a witness to two detainees who need urgent medical attention. And the nurse said they were creating a drama.

The way that the home office is treating us is very unlawful and unfair. Regarding bail and temporary admission – Most of us have applied for bail 4 or 5 times. But every time they are refusing with the same objections.

Most detainees have family out there who are really worried about them. They have partners and kids and a few of their wives are pregnant. They are very worried about them. Most detainees that have family outside are being told by the home office and the authorities that they shouldn’t worry about their kids. But of course they still worry about them. How can someone else take care of them. Nothing is like a father.

The home office is giving people tickets on a weekly basis. Most of them have pending cases in the court but the home office is trying to push them back to other countries while the case is still pending. Most of the cases are asylum and judicial review cases. When there are cases in the court you should send people like that.

A lot of people are here for more than 5 months. Their cases are really on the slow tracks and the home office aren’t communicating with them.

The food is not good. The environment is shit and it is very scary. People are selling drugs on every wing. I’ve never seen drugs like this in my life and people are pushing us to have them.

This is not a way to treat normal people. A lot of us came here with a valid visa and they should release us so we can face our cases out there. I am calling you, and I am on hunger strike. Just imagine, just walk in my shoes once. You have a normal life and then they detain you. Take you away from your family and your kids. It’s not normal. If you’re going to detain you like an animal – how can you expect them to live a normal life. It’s going to be ruining their lives for ever. I’ve spoken to people who have been released and they are still suffering from hypertension, depression and anxiety because this memory is going to be their worst part of their life.

 

 

When I was detained, I told them I was pregnant.

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I’m pregnant and I’ve been in detention for almost 2 months. I’m not supposed to be detained for this long but I’ve been here for a long time now.

My appeal was allowed, it was successful at first and the Home Office appealed. Then I got refused. I appealed and when I went to report I was detained. I was considered appeal rights exhausted even though my appeal was still on. When I was detained, I told them I was pregnant. They said I could still fly up to 9 months which is not the law – I haven’t seen it any where.

I got given a ticket about 2 weeks ago for this Saturday. I didn’t go on Saturday – I was told by the solicitor it was cancelled I the afternoon. But they still came for me in the morning saying I had to go to reception. I told them I wasn’t going. We didn’t know whether they would try to use force. I was so stressed at that point so I didn’t know what to do. They didn’t come for me in the end.

I don’t know what is going to happen now – I put in for an asylum claim and they’ve said the Home Office will be in touch. I’m still waiting in Yarl’s Wood.

Since I’ve been in this place – yes I’ve had medical checks – but I’ve not been properly looked after. I got pregnancy vitimins only after a month. I’m suffering from depression and since I’ve been here they’ve stopped my medication without telling me why. When I booked in I told them I was on this medication but they didn’t give it to me and didn’t check if I needed it. They stopped it without informing me about it.

The food is not appropriate for my condition – it’s really poor in nutrients. I have both sickness and cravings but I can’t get what I want. It’s rice and potatoes and bread everyday. I just try to do what I can but it’s really poor. Even the medical staff will agree with me. They say they hope I’ll be out soon so they know themselves its wrong but they’re not doing anything about it.

This is my first child – on the outside, I was going to get ante-natal classes to prepare myself for my first child. I asked them for books and readings. It’s been over a month now and they haven’t got back to me. It just seems like it doesn’t matter. It feels like I’m already failing as a mum even though the baby hasn’t come yet. What if the baby gets here and I’m not ready. Not just physically but mentally prepared. It’s really frustrating.

They shouldn’t detain pregnant women. They shouldn’t detain anyone at all. I won’t just talk for myself because I’m pregnant. It’s unfair for anyone. This is mental torture, it’s physical as well. It’s like you’re stuck in someplace and people are asking for things you can’t do – evidence, for example. If you’re on your own in here you can’t get it. You come in when you’re healthy but it’s not good for you. I will get out of here and I’ll be more mentally ill than I was before. I’ve not had a good day since I’ve been in here. Even when you’re trying to cope, to settle yourself. There’s always something they will do to remind you that you’re not free. That you’re controlled by somebody.