We are having peaceful protest.

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We are having peaceful protest. We are saying we want freedom and we want detention to be shut down. The main agenda is freedom. WE don’t want to be detained for no good reason. We are victims of torture, we are victims of rape and some have mental health problems. They are still being locked up. The law says you can’t do this but most of these women here have these experiences.  WE want people to hear our voice. We want to be treated like any other human being. WE are not crimanls. We have been looking for safety in the United Kingdom. But we experience this torture.

MPs will be discussing this in Parliament this week. And we want them to vote to shut them down. We want all the MPs to say no people can be locked up. We haven’t done anything. We are calling on people voting on the 10th of September to vote for detention to come to an end. It is unfair for people to locked up for no good reason. Why should this continue? If they believe in human rights, we want them to vote for detention to come to an end.

We want to be free. We want detention to end.

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We want to be free. We want detention to end. We want this torture of women and pregnant women to end. We have been locked up for a long time. We have been in detention as a scape goat. We need this to end. We want our freedom. Release us! I want to go home!

I’ve been in UK 17 years…. I’ve been here for 12 years. we belong here.

“We want freedom…All we are saying…..We want Freedom…”

We are in the yard, We are protesting.

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We are in the yard, We are protesting. We’ve been here for over an hour since 9 oclock. There are thirty of us. We are asking for our freedom. We chanting for our freedom. We are shouting. We are singing ‘Freedom, Freedom, Freedom, We want our own Freedom’.

There is a big protest happening here at the Salam distribution centre

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[Statement from people in Calais, translated]

There is a big protest happening here at the Salam distribution centre in the jungle and the government have cut the satellite signal so there can be no broadcast.

People are blockading the government distribution centre because they no longer want to live in worse conditions than those they left behind. It’s not enough to receive 1 badly cooked meal per day. People seeking asylum in France are being given nothing and forced to live in the jungle. People have a right to dignity and many people are badly injured and left with no medical provisions to die in the jungle. La vie active who run the Salam centre profit from justifying people’s prolonged stay in the jungle. Today the demonstration will continue at the gates of the centre and everyone informed why and asked not to go inside. If people want to go in they can and will not be subject to abuse. It is not good enough that racism exists in the camp and today we are one voice, one hand to stop the injustice of this border.

People of the jungle are not treated as human beings but numbers in system. We are not allowed the right to protest in the town but hidden away, they try to silence us. We will not accept this system and we will provide our  own solution. The European governments made this problem and it is their responsibility to solve it in a way that gives us a better life. We did not risk our lives to suffer this inhumanity. We must stand together, this protest is the start and we will continue until our situation is resolved. We want to remain peaceful even when the police use violence against us.

UK Home Office Humanity Crimes Against Africans and Asians – part 1

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AN ACCOUNT OF IMMIGRATION DETAINEES IN UK

1) Please take your time when you read the information below, because you are entering the new Apartheid Britain. Immigration detention centres are a system that critics decry as racist and brutal. These detention centres are filthy and have a destructive effect on the welfare of detainees. Detainees live in unhygienic conditions, with drains overflowing, food rotting in the kitchen, bedbugs in their rooms and pigeons flying around inside the building.

2) We hope that something will come out of detainee’s plight and maybe a legal challenge from those who wants to see justice being practiced by the UK Home Office. Detention must have time limit and out of country appeal for asylum seekers must be abolished, asylum seekers should not be in continuous detention.

3) As detainees who have witnessed many atrocities in detention centres we believe it would be best to exercise legal minds in the detention of asylum seekers/refugees and illegal immigrants. Non-legal-qualified UK Home Office Caseworkers must not be given a license to detain and re-detain, release or refuse. Legal authority must be applied instead of an individual deciding people’s fate.

4) A number of detainees have contributed to the information in this report, and they wish to remain anonymous. We hope you will contact the right people and all embassies to raise our concerns as we are been continuously ill-treated at the hands of the UK Home Office. The UK government claim Zimbabwe, Russia, China, Iran etc. countries have no human rights and that leaders of such countries are disports/dictators and the UK government is doing exactly the same if not worse behind detention centres doors and the British public never get a chance to find out the atrocities carried-out by the British Home Office. In simple words ‘Detention Centres’ are not fit for purpose and should be closed. The Home Office must deal with our cases whilst we are free people. The UK government is in serious breach of Article 3, Article 5, Article 6, and Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. They have no regard to human sufferings. People flee persecution from their countries seeking protection in the UK and they are detained indefinitely in high security detention centres?

5) If a person claim an asylum anywhere in Europe and then visit the UK, that person is likely to be detained and deported to their home country and not deported to the country where they were given protection or refugee status. This is a clear abuse of the Geneva Convention and European Rules on refugee protection

6) One of the detainee has lived in the UK for over 20 years, has three British born children and has been in detention for 6 months with no end on sight to his harrowing experience.

7) June/July 2015 – A month or two ago, Mr Ahmed Yashi, an Iraqi national sewn-up his mouth with a needle and thread at The Verne in protest at his indefinite detention. The detainee was quickly moved to London detention Centres before most detainees knew about it.

8) Detainees are treated so bad that to alleviate their stress, sufferings and bullying from the staff, they resort to taking drugs, harmful drugs. Many detainees inflict self-harm such as cutting their wrists, arms, necks etc. some see suicide as the only way out. Indefinite detention is to blame for such behaviour.

9) Even the shop does not treat us right. Most of the days when we go to shop, they tell us they have no plastic bags to carry our shopping. So, we are resorted to carrying our shopping by hands like gorillas in the wild.

10) UK Detention Centres for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are the new Concentration Camps with high walls, barbed wire, unhelpful health centre, 24hr-CCTV monitoring and constant guards. These detention centres are nothing but high security prisons. We are only allowed to work inside these detention centres if we sign Emergency Travelling Documents (ETD). If a detainee is considered ‘non-compliant’, then they cannot work for the paltry wage of £30 a week, cleaning, industrial work etc. We are forced to comply with signing travelling documents etc. How can we be forced to sign travelling documents from the country we are fleeing persecution from? Once released from detention we are not allowed to work even when we have British born children. Where is the fairness in that? Non-compliant covers the following:

  1. Refusing to sign travelling document
  2. Refusing to speak to your embassy
  3. Refusing deportation
  4. Refusing to give information about families in your home country
  5. Allegedly refusing a transfer to another detention centre. Many detainees have been put on such a list of non-compliance by officers as a way to bully detainees. Most of the refusal to move is not a true account of what happens to the detainee on the day.

11) Why do all these so called detention centres have ‘Segregation Units’? These units are there to unnecessarily punish detainees who refuse to sign travelling documents or detainees who refuse to be deported. Once a detainee is on ‘basic’ or is in ‘Segregation Unit’ his level of privilege is reduced to basic, which means he is no longer allowed the following: shopping, gym and internet usage for a week or month.

12) We have witnessed people who came to the UK at the age of 6 months been deported to their home country. A country where they have no cultural or community ties with. How does a human being who have no affiliations or cultural ties with a country be expected to live a normal life at an adult age of 20?

13) We have witnessed the Home Office issuing ‘phantom’ air-tickets just to confuse and frustrate detainees. No apology is ever issued. To Home Office Caseworker is just a game but it is not a game to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants when you continuously torture them psychologically.

14) Many detainees coming from prison have voiced their frustrations of discrimination they witnessed in prison from NHS staff. British prisoners are treated better by healthcare than Foreign Prisoners.

15) We have witnessed healthcare discrimination in immigration detention centres. It is a fact that British prisoners are treated better than immigration detainees.

16) We have witnessed the worst treatment immigration detainees receive at two detention centres (Brookhouse and The Verne). We have witnessed officers dressed in full riot gear (shields, helmets and baton) coming to remove a detainee who have refused deportation. Such brute force is used early in the mornings and also late at night or sometimes midday when everyone is banged-up. We are not allowed phone cameras, so we can’t video the brutality that is hidden from the public eyes.

17) Other detention centres that use brute force are Colnbrook, Hammondsworth and Yarlswood. In most detention centres, there are two detainees per room. The room has bunk beds, a sink and toilet with little or no ventilation. The majority of detention centres have no openable windows and the air we breathe is not fresh. Detainees are locked behind doors from 9pm-8am and again between 12:30-13:30 and also between 16:30-17:30. That is clearly a prison regime being practiced by the Home Office on detainees.

18) Colnbrook is one of the dirtiest detention centre in the country. It is not fit to house a human being and this one must definitely be closed asap before more people die of the filth there. It is a horrible, depressing place, which houses two to four detainees in one small room that has no openable windows.

19) Most immigration detention centres are not fit for human habitation. Toilets are extremely dirty, showers are terribly dirty and food is not that good. Kitchen staff wash food trolleys using mop buckets, the same mop buckets used to clean dirty floors and filthy rooms. Yet, they never do the same for British prisoners.

20) One detainee grew-up in apartheid South Africa, he told us that in South Africa he witnessed so much brutality that it will last a lifetime. He was a victim of South African political torture and the Home Office refuse to free him even though the doctor at The Verne completed a Rule 35 report  clearly stating that scars he has are consistent with torture. Freedom from Torture offered to help him with treatment once he is released from detention. Home Office Caseworkers have shown complete disregard of doctor’s recommendations and findings to detainees. They have not released him.

21) The days of apartheid are over in South Africa but it is sad to say that Apartheid is well and alive in the UK. None-whites are stopped on the streets, detained indefinitely then brutally forced out of the UK. Immigration detentions are exactly what Hitler was doing to the Jews. Locking Jews-up and gassing them was wrong. UK Home Office is locking asylum seekers indefinitely and using brute force to remove them from the UK.

22) These detention centres are exactly like old German Concentration Camps. EU citizens are locked-up, Africans and Asians all locked-up for a very long time. Some have been in detention for over four years. We hate what Hitler did in those Concentration Camps and hate what the British government is doing in modern day Concentration Camps of asylum seekers and immigrants. Hitler killed the Jews in Concentration Camps, and there is no difference to what the UK is doing to asylum seekers in detention. These UK detention centres are killing detainees psychologically, mentally and physically. They obtain our Travelling Documents under false pretence, then use brute force to remove us from the UK without any of our embassies knowing about the atrocities and ill-treatment received from the UK Home Office.

23) We, detainees put the complete blame to our embassies who have given the Home Office permission to ill-treat us by being bullied to issue ETD’s (Emergency Travelling Documents) without our consent and/or demanding to see us in person. If our embassies could at least demand to see us, then we will be able to voice how badly we are treated and abused by the Home Office Caseworkers and officers. Most detainees have families, British children and the issuing of ETD’s in our absence is tearing families apart. We want embassies to stop issuing Emergency Travelling Documents in our absence.

24) Embassies who continue to issue ETD’s to UK Home Office in people’s absence has amounted to the UK government deporting many people who have judicial review pending for their cases. Border officials target specific nationalities for deportation in order to fill-up charter flights. This has led to people who have legal claims being forcibly removed. The embassies who issue these ETD’s on their citizens’ absence are equally to blame for giving the British government license to abuse their own people.

25) Forced removals is the cause of the following:

  1. Families are torn apart.
  2. Brute force is used
  3. Limbs are dislocated
  4. Detainees are finding suicide as the only way-out.

26) It must be noted that British citizens are not treated like slaves in our countries. It is a fact that most British passport holders are allowed to visit many countries visa-free and those countries’ citizens can only visit the UK with a valid visa and they still face strict UK immigration rules, most of them end-up denied entry at UK Airport. Is that fair practice?

27) The UK were in the forefront of enslaving black people in the eighteenth century. Now they are detaining us indefinitely and enforcing mass deportation in charter flights. If we refuse, excessive force is used, we are pinned down, handcuffed and bussed to the airport then bungled into charter flights. Is that the humane way of treating a fellow human beings. Detention Centres and forced deportations are modern-day slavery by the UK government. Feel free to visit YouTube and search for UK forded deportations or UK mass deportations. The account is really disturbing for any human beings to comprehend.

28) The UK bad treatment of immigrants/asylum seekers is very similar to the days of Europeans enslaving Africans. What is happening is not right and inhuman. Detainees are detained indefinitely and when they take their own lives, no one is held accountable, they are treated more like dogs or worse rats.

29) STOP CHARTER FLIGHTS! Charter Flights currently run from the UK to Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Pakistan, Iraq, Cameroon, DR Congo, Jamaica, Kosovo and Albania. Charter flights treat removals as a business, and people are removed as goods for transporting. Charter Flights fly with only detainees and guards, normally two guards per detainee. These charter flights are efficient machines for removing those the Home Office can manage to refuse, with whatever weak excuses they can find.

30) The spectre of UK mass deportations have raised alarms of unfolding humanitarian disaster. It is shocking that it has so far generated little international attention, much less condemnation from world leaders. Please read the following articles:

31) Restraining detainees for forced removal normally leads to death and the perpetrators are never brought to justice and if they brought to justice they are never found guilty. Death in UK immigration centres seem a normal occurrence and no legal charges were ever brought against those involved in the following deaths:

2010: Mr Jimmy Mubenga died on board a plane at Heathrow airport that was bound for Angola in October 2010. The guards who restrained him where never found guilty. His death was a predictable consequence of unlawful forced deportation system 04/06/2014 – Bruno Dos Santos, died in his 20s at The Verne, he left a child fatherless

2015:  On 20/04/2015 – Pinakin Patel, 33, collapsed and died at the Centre’s family unit. It is understood that he and his wife were being kept there after coming to Britain from India two months earlier. They had a six month visa to visit the UK. Sadly, this goes-on all over the UK. Visitors are detained even though they have a valid visa.

2015: 06/08/2015 – Thomas Kirungi died IRC the Verne, Dorset after medical staff refused to give him his daily medication for severe depression. They told him he was late and that he must come healthcare the following day.

We have only mentioned a few here, the list is long and painfully sad

Chronological Statement Of Mr TK Death At IRC The Verne

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(EDITOR: Detained Voices has received a long report entitled “UK HOME OFFICE HUMANITY CRIMES AGAINST AFRICANS & ASIANS” written by people held inside The Verne IRC. It will be published in sections, currently with some specific details redacted. Where text is removed, it is replaced by [ ]. Names of people detained have been anonymised.)

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32) CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENT OF MR TK DEATH AT IRC THE VERNE ON 06/08/2015 IS AS FOLLOWS:

i. IRC the Verne – Death of Mr TK, a Ugandan national, 30 years of age. On 05/08/2015 at 16:30, he was refused his medication by the healthcare staff who told him he was late. He was upset as the medication helps him deal with indefinite detention. The following day 06/08/2015 at 08:00, staff found him dead with [ ]. Mr K was suffering from severe depression, panic attacks, mental health issues and was dependant on medication. He went to the medical hatch twice a day to collect his meds, at 8:30 and 16:00 without fail.

ii. Mr K’s depression got worse after staff at The Verne started controlling how much of his own money he was allowed to spend. He hated that treatment and would complain to anyone who knew him. The staff only allowed him to spend £25 a week of his own money and that was too much controlling of an individual. The claimed that he was a target to drug dealers.

iii. Doctors have written to the Home Office about his health and recommended release as he was a vulnerable detainee. The Home Office Caseworker wrote to Mr K stating that he was ‘pretending’, ‘faking it’. He must be faking it and/or pretending his death! Home Office Caseworkers are not human beings, they treat detainees like the worst scum on earth (excuse my French).

iv. Mr K was an asylum seeker from Uganda. His mother lives in London. His asylum claim was refused and was told that he can only appeal from outside the UK. How can someone who is fleeing persecution appeal asylum refusal from the country they are fleeing persecution from. We cannot appeal when we are dead, or can we do that in the UK? Die first then appeal Home Office asylum refusal as requested for every asylum seeker who have been refused asylum? To make matters worse for Mr K, the Home Office threatened him with deportation.

v. On the [ ]/08/2015, we wrote a memo to the Home Office and faxed it to: The Home Office (Case Management), Fax: [ ] reads as follows:

Re: The Death of Mr TK on 06/08/2015 at IRC The Verne, Portland, Dorset, DT5 1EQ.

We write this statement as a collective. We are the occupants of [ ]. We are very saddened of what happened to one of our fellow detainee and friend. This is a very traumatic experience for any detainee, we need urgent help, be it medical attention and counselling. So far the Verne IRC has not done anything to help or talk to any of us. We are traumatised, disturbed and shocked of what happened. He was a nice person and always smiling with us. His death has affected us in a way that we cannot explain or write here. We really want to talk to someone to help get us over it please? Would you kindly please refer us to counselling and consider our release on compassionate grounds? (Signed document not included for anonymity reasons)

vi. It is sad that no official came to see anyone of us who shared the same landing with Mr K. No official came to visit and check how badly affected, shocked and traumatised the occupants on Mr K’s landing (Room [ ]) coped with his death. Nobody cares if a refugee, asylum seeker or illegal immigration dies in UK detentions.

vii. It was only after the Home Office have received our faxed memo that we received letters from The Verne Acting Manager Mr David Bourne on the 12th August 2015 as a response to the memo we singed and sent to the Home Office (see above vi). Mr Bourne mentioned that he was responding to the memo dated 6th August and addressed to the Home Office Case Management, following Detainee Information Notice Number 033/2015. The home Office did not respond to our signed Memo. They really don’t care about us. (We will be pleased to fax you the letter from Mr David Bourne, if requested).

viii. Mr PF, a Jamaican national spoke to senior Verne Officers on the day Mr K was found dead. Mr PF wanted to see the detective so he can tell them what happened at the Verne Healthcare the day before Mr K’s death. The senior officers told Mr PF they will contact the detective. Mr PF explained to the officers that he was present at Healthcare on the 5th August 2015 (around 16:30) when nurses refuse to give Mr K his medication telling him that he was late. Mr K responded that he was asleep and apologise for being late but the nurses were not having none of it. Mr K was denied his important medication and the following day he was found dead.

ix. A witness like Mr PF should have been given a chance to talk to the detective in order to help them with their enquiries. Surprisingly, two days later Mr PF was transferred to Brookhouse. Mr PF had serious medical attention and was suffering from hernia. The doctor at the Verne stated that he was unfit to travel and that he needed an urgent medical attention; ‘in simple terms Mr PF needed very important surgery and was not fit to travel long distance, let alone fly UK to Jamaica’. We have not heard from Mr PF after he was transferred to Brookhouse. We think he has been deported to Jamaica in an effort to cover-up The Verne murder of Mr K. Mr PF is a very important witness to the enquiry of Mr K and should be brought back for police questioning.

On Friday morning someone died in the Verne

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On Friday morning 3am someone died in the Verne. For some reason he killed himself. We are on the next landing to those guys. When the two officers did a room check in the morning found him. He was bleeding from his head. No one’s saying why he died or how he died. They are saying something about drugs. He was on medication, and was asking them for help. He went to the NHS and they said he was late by 5 minutes. And for some reason he didn’t get his tablet. The NHS is really bad in here. I’ve had complaints about my medication and I’ve made complaints and I’ve never heard anything from them. He was upset that night. And he was in his room and he decided to do that.

The next day someone else cut himself very seriously. The NHS came after a long time. He was bleeding for a long time. The officers knew he was going to do that because he told them. They check him every hour but he did it after they checked and was there for a long time.

When the guy died an officer came in laughing, and joking as if nothing happened. They just think a joke happened. They were laughing loud. I told them how serious it was. I asked why they were laughing so loud in the corridor. I got no answer. Only two officers was shocked by what happened, they’re the only one’s that understand things here. The main officers don’t care what happened. When the body and the ambulance was gone, that’s it. It’s like nothing’s happened here.

Another friend has been here 13 months. That’s a long time. He is really upset. I’ve been here 7 months. I’ve done no crime or nothing. I told them I’m going to kill myself as well. I haven’t been eating for 4 days, since the guy died. They know I’m not eating and they’re not doing anything. They don’t care at all. We can’t take this any more.

I’ve complied with everything. I given it all to them. I gave them everything I remember about my address in India and they say I’m going to get a two year prison sentence for not saying. Well I was 14 when I left India. I’ve been here half my life, so I am not going to remember everything. I told them everything I know.  If you can’t send me back at least let me go, let me think about my future. I’m thinking I’m going to be here 13 months and there’s no way I can be here that long.

I’ve been here 40 days in Dungavel detention centre

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I’ve been here 40 days in Dungavel detention centre. They’re not doing anything to help me. I have refugee status in Ireland in Dublin. I’ve been here for about 4 and half years. I was on a student visa and I have some trouble in my country. I moved to Ireland and got status. Then I came to see my friend in Belfast and the police got me. I told the police I had refugee status but they didn’t listen to me and they took me here to Scotland. Immigration here are saying they are waiting for a reply from Ireland. I’ve spoken to Ireland but they say they can’t help me because I’m outside the country. They say you need to contact a solicitor and they will help you. But they’re saying they shouldn’t detain you because you have refugee status. I’ve been here for 40 days to be honest that’s a long time.

CRUELTY, HATRED AND WICKEDNESS AT COLNBROOK IRC HEALTHCARE

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In the month of June 2015 publication in Inside time National Newspaper for Prisoners & Detainees, Judge Dennis Challeen wrote an open letter to the new Justice Secretary Michael Gove. He wrote:

“we want them to have self worth, so we destroy their self worth

To be responsible, so we take away all responsibility

To be part of our community, so we isolate them from the community

To be positive and constructive, so we degrade them and make them useless

To be non violent, so we put them where there is violence all round

To be kind and loving people, so we subject them to hatred and cruelty

To quit being tough guys, so we put them where the tough guy is respected

To quit hanging around losers, so we put all the losers under one roof

To quit exploiting us, so we put them where they exploit each other

We want them to take control of their own lives own their own problems and quit being parasites, so make them totally dependent on us.”

In a book “The Rule of Law”, wrote by Lord Tom Bingham in page 3 under “The Importance of the Rule of Law” he wrote:

“ Dicey gave three meanings to the rule of law. ‘We mean, in the first place.’ he wrote, ‘that no man is punishable or can lawfully be made to suffer in body or goods except for a distinct breach of law established in the ordinary legal manner before the ordinary courts of the land.’ Dicey’s thinking was clear. If anyone – you or I – is to be penalized it must not be for breaking some rule dreamt up by an ingenious minister or official in order to convict us. …

Dicey expressed his second meaning in this way: ‘We mean in the second place, when we speak of “rule of law” as a characteristic of our country, not only that with us no man is above the law, but (which is different thing) that here, every  man, whatever be his rank or condition, is subject to the ordinary law of the realm and amenable to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals.’ Thus no one  is above the law, and all are subject to the same law administered in the same courts. The first is the point made by Dr Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) in 1733:

‘Be you never so high, the Law is above you. So if you maltreat a penguin in the London Zoo, you do not escape prosecution because you are Archbishop of Canterbury; If you sell honours for a cash reward, it does not help that you are Prime Minister. But the second point is important too. There is no special law or court which deals with archbishops and prime ministers: the same law, administered in the same courts, applies to them as to everyone else.”

In Prison Service Order PSO3050 Continuity of Healthcare for Prisoners & Detainees:

“This PSO contains guidance to improve the continuity of healthcare received by prisoners. It includes guidance on reception, transfer and discharge of prisoners, with particular focus on those with ongoing health needs. The PSO
also sets out clinical management of outpatient escorts and NHS inpatient episodes. It contained statements that Prisons is expected to treated in the same standard of care as if they were in the community.”

One would equally expect that this guidance apply to Healthcare in Immigration Detention Centres across the
United Kingdom.

I used three adjectives to qualify Healthcare at Colnbrook Immigration Detention Centre. I have used three articles lifted from two renowned and highly respected Judges and an extract of the legislation to drive home my point. I would now tell my story using these three articles to justify that my use of three strong adjectives to describe the services and treatment received at Colnbrook is not unfounded, misguided or a distorted perception of a frustrated detainee.

It is a well known norm that when prisoners or detainees make complaint(s) against member of staff or healthcare
they receive reprisals and constant victimisation as a result of their complaint.

I made a complaint against Healthcare staff who had previously given a confirmation to Colnbrook Unit Wing
Staff not to move and isolate a new resident with medical problem. She confirmed to them without any medical test that I was not exposed to any risk or danger sharing a room with a new resident with an itching condition (I suspected to be scabies at the time) despite the fact that resident (I would called Mr “Z”) had expressed to Healthcare in his own words as he speaks little English, “I am no good to be with anyone or share a room with another.”. When he told me of his statement to Healthcare, I went to the Wing staff and Manager, and not only did I highlight my observation(s) of Mr Z constant loud scratching of his body throughout the night but my concern(s) and fear(s) that I am at risk of getting infected with the disease/condition. I was quickly told that the lady at Healthcare confirmed to them I am not at any risk. But four days later, my body was on fire, I was itching all over my body and had sleepless nights.

I was so frustrated at this fact that I raised this serious concern to the staff. I got even more frustrated when the same lady at healthcare who had confirmed to the staff that I was not at risk repeatedly blocked me from seeing the doctor(s), saying she has seen me. That it was not scabies but a normal itching despite the fact my body was red and covered with bruises.

I wrote complaint after complaint to the Manager Colnbrook, Manager Healthcare and to the Home Office. For over three weeks neither myself or Mr Z was seen by a doctor until Mr Z wrote and submitted a complaint himself. We did not know at the time why the Healthcare, after the receipt of Mr Z’s complaint, quickly came after him before he returned to our room and called him for a doctor’s appointment.

Little did we both know that the Colnbrook Healthcare staff had confirmed to Home Office the previous day, before the receipt of Mr Z’s complaint, that he was fit and well for his Asylum interview. Because Mr. Z had declined to attend an Asylum interview citing ill-health and the fact he had not slept for weeks. The Home Office refused his Asylum Claim application on the grounds for non-compliant citing ‘confirmation of good health’, received from healthcare despite the fact that Healthcare was aware he was sick and in receipt of my numerous complaints. It was one single person (a lady) at healthcare, doing all these and preventing both of us (myself and Mr Z) from seeing the doctor.

It was during Mr Z’s appeal against the decision/refusal of his Asylum claim by Home Office that I asked him to hand over all my complaints to his solicitors. These complaints and list of medications prescribed by the same healthcare who had earlier confirmed that he was fit and healthy were presented to the Judge who questioned the Home Office decision in court. They admitted receiving my complaints and it was established that Colnbrook healthcare had misled Home Office. Mr Z was later released on bail shortly after this hearing.

While Mr Z was leaving the centre on bail he said to me, “I am a good Muslim, therefore I would tell you what I have done behind you. If at any time you feel pains around your chest area. I may be responsible for it because of my stay with you in the same room. Call me to be your witness at anytime as your witness I know I am dying. I told healthcare I am not good to share a room with another person they did not listen. Look at how you started itching few days after I moved to your room. When you were complaining to staff for them to move me away from the room. One staff member told to make a complaint against you, that you threw a chair at me. I am really sorry. You are a good man. It is now your complaints that helped my case. I want to be your friend. Please forgive me. Please here is my mobile number contact anytime you like and I would always pray for you and may be come and visit you soon.”

How else can I describe this kind of behaviour and conduct? That is why I called it unconscionable behaviour and an absolute cruelty and wickedness. How else can I describe this conduct? That was why I was compelled to use to Judge Dennis Challeen’s open letter to Michael Gove, in which his words capture the events taken place here. He wrote: “we want them to have self worth, so we destory their self worth, to be kind and loving people, so we subject them to hatred and cruelty.”

How can a staff/nurse of a Healthcare at Colnbrook Detention Centre in a democratic society like Britain float the rules, regulations and standards of NHS and Nurse Standards, fail to comply with the guidelines in PSO 3050, subject detainees through weeks and months of unbearable pains, sleepless nights, anxiety and frustrations be so high and above the rule of law? That was the reason(s) why I cited Lord Bingham’s quotation in his book “Rule of Law”

Victimisation after numerous Complaints I made repeated requests to see the doctor but was denied. I was referred to see the doctor by the nurse after obtaining my x-ray report from Hillingdon hospital but each time my name was taken off this list by the Healthcare staff, which I suspect to be the lady I made a complaint against earlier. The series of events leading to my name being taken off mirrors when I was deliberately refused access to a doctor when I contacted an infection from Mr Z.

I contacted the Manager, Healthcare Colnbrook IRC on 9th, 11th and 13th December 2014. I contacted Home Office on 15th December 2014 as a follow up to all these previous complaints in relation to Mr Z’s infection and risk. Meanwhile I had been waiting for over 19 months and counting for x-ray on my lower back and hip during this period I was exposed to another suffering. I was only taken to Hillingdon hospital for this x-ray on the 1st of December 2014. It was just 9 days after I was taken to hospital for x-ray that I started making my complaints about the risk Mr. Z poses to my health by his location to share a room with me. I was made to suffer for over 3 to 4 months before I received reports of the scan.

One whole month went by, without a satisfactory response from healthcare. I believe this was a reprisal for my complaints. I had to contact Hillingdon hospital myself for a copy of my x-ray as Colnbrook healthcare informed me that the scan revealed minor degenerative changes without showing the images. I contacted the hospital repeatedly on 4th and 6th January 2015 requesting for copies of images my x-ray as my excruciating pains on my lower back as result of a fall from a chair cannot be a minor degenerative change.

I was taken back to Hillingdon hospital on 1 February 2015 for a second x-ray which I assume was as a result non-availability of images from the 1st scan. I have shown these images from the 2nd x-ray to nurses at healthcare as the images and the curve on my spine does not seem to suggest that the defect(s) are really a minor degenerative change.

I have since then been referred to see the doctors but again crossed off the list on the day of the appointment. I wrote to the Home Office on 8 June 2015 to complain as my protracted problem has now turned to erectile dysfunction. As I correctly anticipated, my name was taken off the doctor’s list for my booked appointment for 10 June 2015. I asked the Manager of Colnbrook healthcare on the morning of 10th June 2015 to confirm if I have a doctor’s appointment. He confirmed to me that my doctor’s appointment was 2pm on the same day. When I arrived at healthcare and knocked on the door I was informed that my name was not on the list. I insisted on seeing the manager or the doctor as this was 6th time my name has been taken off the list. I was eventually seen by the doctor who informed me he is paid to see only 6 person(s) on each visit. I was also informed that I have been referred for MRI scan which I strongly doubt due my previous experience with healthcare.

During my consultation with the doctor, he asked to leave the room so that he can make a call to the hospital to book for urgent MRI Scan whilst waiting in the waiting area. I got into a conversation with a resident whom I share my frustration and expressed my feeling that it was the lady I wrote a complaint against who is the person responsible for all protocol and assisting the doctor on 10th of June (the 6th time my name was taken off the doctors list). A male nurse heard our private conversation and asked me why I felt it was this lady. I gave him my honest explanation.

The events that happened after this one on one chat was dramatic, some few minutes after leaving healthcare, the manager, the male nurse that overheard my private conversation and the lady I was accusing emerged in front my room looking for me. I was called out to meet them from the IT room and all their questions focused on how I would feel if I am the lady and someone is accusing me of removing their name from the list. No one asked or imagined the cruelty of leaving a detainee waiting for an urgent medical treatment which has affected my erection. When I asked a simple common sense question of why they did not log into their system and print the name the person who had printed the doctor’s list on each of those days my name was taken of the list. The lady become aggressive and started pointing her fingers in the direction of my face. I perceive the conduct as bullying upon the fact that they had shown me no evidence the referral for MRI Scan has been done.

Is this not cruelty? Is this not victimisation for making a genuine complaint? Do I need to die before I receive treatment at Colnbrook Immigration Detention Centre?

I was there on Saturday.

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I was there on Saturday. The ladies were really psyched about the demonstration outside. I was one of the people getting people together. I have been outside with Movement for justice when I was out.

It gives people so much hope. The more people that shows up at the demonstration, the more hope that is given to people in here. The more ladies were gathering inside, the more officers were hanging around. This was quite intimidating for the ladies. The ladies would come out from the rooms where they could see the protesters. The officers were saying we should get down from the tables and stop shouting. They were saying they would be put in trouble.

They had set up bingo for the time of the protest and the door is locked the whole time for bingo. So you can’t go outside and see the protest. A few people went. Some people think that the Serco people are going to help them get released. They get scared.

There is one woman, she doesn’t take nonsense from the officers. She will talk back to them. They are always searching her, they don’t give her a break. If they see you hanging around her then the officers say why are you hanging around her? It will go on your file. They don’t like seeing us with her. These things scared people.

From my side on Dove I could say around 50 ladies saw the protest and around 30 were participating with them shouting. But there were also people from the other units who saw it.

The protest was a sort of empowerment. Some people didn’t know about protests but when they saw it they were moved. They kept saying that this is good, this is good. It gives me courage to go on and maybe one day one time they will be closed down.

This is my second time in Yarl’s Wood. When you get to detention centre the first time I hated the fact I was locked up. I was there for 7 months. That time messed me up so much, even when I was outside. The second time is worse. It was harder than before because I was released for three months and now I’m back. It makes me feel that I didn’t do much. For the first 1 and half month of being released, I was still trapped. I didn’t go out, I only went out for appointments. I used to feel that they were watching me like the cameras and the officers. It was weird. I wasn’t able to do anything for my case and I feel like I wasted that time because these things time. People don’t deserve to be in here.

There are different women in here, with different cases and different issues and they’re all put in the same place. And people harm themselves. And even those who don’t think of that, they see it and get scared. It doesn’t make sense. It is a weird place to be in.