When i come to this country I was married to an English man. He had HIV. After one year of marriage it didn’t work because he wanted to fuck me in my bum. I said no its against my religion. And he called immigration and cancelled my passport and my visa. And after three months I go to hospital and they tell me I have HIV. I used to see my husband taking medication but I cannot read English. I can speak English well but I can’t read it. He didn’t tell me he had HIV. So now I am on medication i realised it is the medication my husband used to take. Immigration now are trying to deport me and I am on medication and I have to take it all my life, my family will not accept it and buy my medication because they do not accept my marriage. I got married without my family’s consent so the will not help me. When I was was married I was 15 at the time and he was 53. Since then I lived in the street, I am stressed, I cannot walk in the street. I cannot trust no one. I don’t know what happened to me. That cause me stressed, and I get more violent when I am stressed and I was in prison for a violent crime. I feel like no-one is there to help me. Immigration won’t help me. They say when my husband abused me why didn’t I report it? I said I didn’t speak English and i didn’t know the law.
Before I was helpless but then I was powerful
I’ve been detained in Yarl’s Wood for 15 plus months. I’m a vulnerable adult. I have serious health issues and I’m a victim of torture. I have an up coming important appointment with Helen Bamber Foundation and Bedford Hospital. I have a six year old daughter in London who stays with her father.
But still the home Office decided to deport me and having no chance to put in my fresh claim. I had a ticket last Tuesday evening to Kenya and then to Namibia. After lunch the officers came to me to take me to the reception. I didn’t want to go so before they came I was hiding in another girls’ room. They were looking for me. My friends would tell me on the phone where the officers were so I could run to a different place. I ended up in Dove wing. It was an empty room – because it had bed bugs. I went in there I lay down under the mattress and I stripped off all my clothes. One officer came in and picked up the mattress. And they screamed and called others. Four or five female officers came in and took me. I was screaming and crying “I don’t want to go, I am a victim of torture, I have a 6 year old daughter”. The officers covered me in blankets. It took an hour to take me. They said just go to reception and you can explain to them why they shouldn’t take me. So I put on my clothes and about 10 guards took me there through the back door. And the other girls were locked in their room but I could hear them “Don’t go don’t go”.
I taken to a room in recember. Four people came into the room and introduced themselves and I said I wanted to explain why you shouldn’t take me. They said no, we are escorts. I said ‘But I was told you were immigration officers’. They said no, the officers lied. They searched me, looking in my mouth, my whole body and in my shoes. They put on this tag on me to tie my hands together and put something like a belt, a special life belt around my waist. The officers were beside me – if I ran away they could pull me back with the belt. It was tight.
But how could they lie to a vulnerable person. I’m so angry with them. I know they are just doing a job.
They took me in the car – they untied my hands but the belt was still there. They drive me to the airport. They said it was just their job. Some people they take naked, some have clothes. They said calm down – we know you have a daughter, we know how stressful. They were a little bit nice, they said don’t upset yourself too much.
I had put in a JR and I had support form Black women Against Rape and Movement for Justice and Yarl’s Wood Befrienders as well. They had got support for me on the internet to stop the flight. When we arrived at the airport – I could hear people screaming – the said ‘Stop! Don’t take her on the flight’. I didn’t see them – but I could hear them screaming ‘stop stop’ and the air crew told me what they were saying. I felt really great- I was so happy. I felt really powerful. Before I was helpless but then I was powerful, I was excited.
I went in the plane and sat between the two officers. I was thinking about ways to misbehave. Then suddenly another escort came from behind said stop stop stop. Everything happened quickly. They said get off quickly quickly. I couldn’t believe it. And they took me to Colnbrook and I’m waiting to go back to Yarl’s Wood. Yarl’s Wood is not safe – it should be shut down. Nobody is safe in there.
I’m thankful to the judge who stopped the flight and all the people who have supported me.
When they asked about my report in the court nothing tangible was written down. What they said it was like i was lying.
When they asked about my report in the court nothing tangible was written down. What they said it was like i was lying. Before that day I was complaining to them, the way I am feeling. I am feeling stressed. I am hearing voices. I lost my husband. Nothing was written about that. They are saying I’m lying. I reported it because I am feeling pain in my leg and my arm, that is what cause me to fall down that day. They don’t care about my life. I loose my husband for god sake. Now they are still looking at me like I am pretending. How can I pretend to loose a loved one.
When they took my medical report they said I am fixed, everything is all rights. They are telling me I am lying, that I’m OK.
What can they do to help me? I looked after my husband and when got arrested I told them about my husband. What can they do to prevent my husband to die? They said I would abscond but my husband is British so where am I going to abscond to? They didn’t get someone to look after my husband and six weeks after I was arrested my husband died. Now because I don’t have a husband they say I have to return to my country. My life is in danger in my country.
What is happening in the kitchen now. I am working in the kitchen, which I believe they are supposed to give facilities for ladies to go to the toilet. When I was in the prison they had two toilets and I was expecting that. When you leave the officers search you. I never knew that. I was about to go to the toilet. I asked, ‘Please can you show me the toilet?’ The lady said we didn’t have toilets. I was so stressed. I had my period I needed to go to the toilet. ‘We don’t have toilets here’. They had to get an officer to search me before I could go outside. The officer I spoke to was a woman I asked her to search me so I could go out, but she said she couldn’t. I had to wait over 15 minutes for an officer and I weed on my body. That was cruel. That’s the was we are treated here. I can’t treat my animal like that, the way they are treating us here. If anyone told me this treatment I wouldn’t have believed it but it happened to me. If they can’t look after us they should let us go. I have finished my sentence they are keeping me here. They should let me go. One mistake. They won’t give us another opportunity.
Theres fire in Yarl’s Wood. Its spreading.
Theres fire in Yarl’s Wood. Its spreading. Its coming from crane. The police are there. The fire is very powerful. They say there is a fire door but the door is on fire. Three girls have gone to hospital already. We all think we are going to die. The girls are screaming and crying. They think they are going to die. Fire, ambulance and police truck. Don’t cry, don’t dry.
They are trying to put the fire out. The police are at our block now and saying it is under control.
One Indian girl, she has asthma. We don’t want to die, we don’t want to die. Don’t cry, don’t cry. FIRE FIRE FIRE. All the girls are screaming screaming. We are OK. Its ok its OK. WAKE UP WAKE UP. Everyone is screaming, too many things going on.
They want to kill us so we don’t fight. They are trying to kill us so we don’t fight.
Fours girls now go to hospital. One girl has epilepsy. She has gone.
We don’t know how the fire started. A woman set herself on fire. She want to kill herself she put fire on herself. The officers were saying things to her and set herself on fire. You are supposed to go into the garden but they were telling people go into their room. Four people have set themselves on fire. Everyone is scared. They are taking down that people are on phones and contacting people. This needs to stop.
If this door was a fire door it would not go on fire.
I want to tell you about what’s going on with the fire
I want to tell you about what’s going on with the fire. There was a a big fire. A woman was going through stress. She was crying and no one was paying any attention. A woman tried set the room on fire. She light the room and she was sitting there. There was smoke. There were a lot of screaming and crying. The fire brigade were here. It happened about 20 minutes ago. Everyone had to go to the gym.
It’s really bad. It’s really bad. It’s getting from bad to worse. You don’t know what’s happening here. You can be sleeping and die because of the smoke. Anything can happen because of the stress people are going through. You don’t know what can happen. It’s really really bad tonight.
Everywhere you go you can smell the smoke. People had to cover their nose. Even people upstairs.
Four people have gone to hospital. I don’t know if the woman was okay because they had to pull her out. I don’t know what’s happened now.
Yarl’s Wood needs to close down. People are suffering here.
They are using us to work for £1
They are using us to work for £1. Most of them here they are coming from prison because they are working illegally. So now the immigration removal prisons are using us to do the laundry, to cook, to wash. The working conditions are really bad. In the kitchen we cook the food, washing the plates for £1 per hour. Too many girls don’t want to do it but we have no choice. Its threatening behaviour. Here when you are not working, when you are not doing nothing its bad if you go to court. You can’t get your bail because your report is not good. So most of the women here they don’t want to do that but that’s the choices they have. Because they are coming from prison from working illegally. So when you go to court you have to show your report. And if you aren’t working you don’t get a good report. They want you to show you are a good character. They are threatened.
This beg bugs business is really important. They need to close down Yarl’s Wood. Some of the women here have HIV and the bug are sucking the blood. So we are stress. Very stressed. Cos we don’t know if the bed bugs are carrying the disease or not. People are frightened.
A lot has happened here. I’ve been here seven months.
A lot has happened here. I’ve been here seven months. The health care is rubbish, it is very poor. I’m sick but they can’t take care of me here. The food is rubbish. Last week there was a cockroach inside the food, the vegetarian food. A cockroach. They are keeping all the people here. 70 years. Pregnant people, old people, sick people. They don’t take people to the hospital. There is a lady who get pregnant in here cos she was with her husband. They moved her husband because she got pregnant and kept her here. She is five months pregnant. She is not even getting proper food to eat. Yesterday someone took her food. It was just dry rice and she didn’t eat, she went to bed hungry. All this is going on here its not right. Something has to be done. If you book an appointment to see a doctor is takes two weeks to see a doctor. They don’t respect us at all. It ages before they give you your parcel. It takes long. I am depressed. I am on anti depressants. I do have therapy. The seized my extensions to plait my hair. Three months now they have never given me my extension.
I’ve been bitten so many time by bed bugs. Its all over my body.
I’ve been bitten so many time by bed bugs. Its all over my body. Its causing me discomfort and i’ve got dots all over and swollen legs. I’ve got antibiotics, I only started yesterday so I will have to see if it works. At the moment I can’t see any improvement. There is nothing I can do. They did move me from the room but my legs are swollen and I can’t walk properly.
At approximately 12:07 at lunch time officers chased a woman down the corridor
At approximately 12:07 at lunch time officers chased a woman down the corridor. A loud sound was heard as though someone was thrown to the ground. When we came out to see what was happening there was three officers pinning down a lady. Additional officers chased us into our rooms and locked the doors. One of the officers said, ‘She just fell and hurt herself, nothing to see.’ However at this time they had thrown a towel over her head and had her pinned down on the floor. The officers kept yelling, ‘Go into your rooms’ even though we were already in our rooms and peeking through our doors. When questioned as to what more they wanted us to do – we are already in our rooms – one female officer said very rudely, ‘Because we are telling you to go into your rooms and you wouldn’t like it if everyone was staring at you lying on the floor.’ Someone said, ‘Yes i would because then I would have witnesses to whatever was happening to me.’ Another male officer came up and said ‘we are trained to do this. This is our job so just go into your room.’ After about 15 minutes we started to peep out to see if it was OK. The corridors were clear and the doors were opened again and everyone was trying to figure out what had happened. An officer who was passing through the corridor heard us talking to each other about what we had each seen happen. He told us the lady tried to commit suicide and they were trying to prevent her from doing so. But we didn’t understand why if someone was already in a distressed state why would you pin them to the floor and throw a towel over their head? The officer said, ‘She is downstairs in the office with someone who speaks her language and she will be coming back up.’ And that’s about it for today. So far.
This is my story and Friday is my flying day
I came to the UK in 1996. When I was 2 years old my parents died in a car accident in Bangledesh. When they died, my mum’s brother looked after me. He was quite poor and he sold me to someone who wanted to adopt me. They took me when I was 5 years old and I was with them until I was 15 years of age. But they weren’t a good family, they were beating me, they were treating me like slave. I have a lot of marks on my body. I came with them to the UK. They made me work in a Bangledeshi take away. I was like a slave. After that some people found me working there when I was young. I told them my story and one of them looked after me. He told me not to go back to them. He said you shouldn’t work at my age. He said I could stay at his house. I stayed with them for a while. When I was 18 I worked in a Next clothes shop and Netto supermarket. In 2009, Immigration found me in the work place. They took my wallet, my bank account, my driving licence, national insurance number and they took me to the police station. It was very hard for me in the cell for one night and one day. They released me and told me to go back to see them but I didn’t go back because it was scary. I was fasting at that time, I was weak and I asked them not to keep me in the cell but they kept me.
They found me in 2013 and took me and put me in Morton Hall for 13 days. They released me and said I needed to report. Since then, for two years, I was reporting. One by one, step by step I went through my applications and different kinds of case. I put a fresh claim. Most solicitors talk nice but they work not nice for immigrants. They know my weak point because I’m not allowed to work. I changed my solicitor 10 times while in the UK. With the solicitor you write my life story but they get it wrong. I ask to see it before court but they don’t show it to me. When I go to court it sounds like I’m lying because they got it wrong.
I was signing for two years. One day, the reporting officer told me that we need to recognise me from Bangledesh and needed to speak to London high commissioner. They said we can’t recognise you because we need to see you face to face. So I needed to go to the high commissioner, I said that’s fine. When I went, it took 1 hour, and they said they can’t recognise me. They said maybe I was from Burma or from India and you came very early to the UK so we can’t recognise you. Lots of people speak Bengalie. I speak about 7 different kinds of language. They said they can’t take me sorry. I said that’s fine I don’t want to go.
I talked with them twice. They failed both times. In 2014 immigration refused everything including my fresh claim. I put in a JR and they gave me 90 days. After aeround 30 days they arrest me and they take my picture. They say that everything has finished but I say not everything is finished because I have 90 days for the JR. I say this is unlawful but they arrest me by force.
They take me to Pinine House and then Dungavel. They gave me a ticket. I had to write saying that they have failed to recognise me and they cancelled the ticket. After 4 months they said I needed to go to the commission again in London. I’ve done this twice already. I say why are you sending me again? But they have power, they can do anything. I was moved to Pennine House and then to Harmondsworth.
The High Commissioner asked me my Name and where I was born. That was it. He was very arrogant to me and to the detention officers too. He didn’t say anything to me. I went to the Gatwick detention centre with a very small room with two people on a bunk bed, with a toilet in the room, an open toilet. How can I go toilet in that – no door, no curtain nothing. I wrote to them that this is prison proper. I want to go to Dungavel. I know this is detention too, its prison, but something is better than nothing.
They sent me back to Dungavel. Altogether it was 5 months. On Saturday they forced me to go, to London. They said they have a ticket. I said no, I’ve got nothing in Bangledesh. How did you know that my asylum is wrong? For my last application they didn’t accept it, they didn’t didn’t interview. I provided with them with all the documents, but they didn’t accept anything. Maybe you have got it wrong, I said. I am now in Pennine House. Tomorrow they will take me to Harmondsworth. And Friday is my flying day. They said to me they will take me by force.
As well I’m not well. My throat is very painful. And I had a fish from Dungavel and now my throat has been bleeding a little bit some time. And I feel in pain. I’m also very depressed, I’ve been here 5 months. I’ve been given sleeping and depression tablet. They gave me these two for every day. The doctor knows everything and booked me an appointment in hospital. But I haven’t been because of this removal. This is my story and Friday is my flying day.
detained voices 