I feel I am being threatened and patronised because of the protest

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Yarls Wood IRC
Bedford

On the 2/3/18, I was summoned to the Legal Home Office department to meet the Immigration Enforcement Manager Fiona Quaynor, I met her in the presence of her teammate (another) home office officer. I do not recall his name but he is Indian.

I was told by Fiona I am going to be interviewed by them especially because I am on the hunger strike protest in Yarl’s Wood over Home Office injustices and unfairness. They asked me if I was fit to do the interview to which I replied it’s ok we can proceed. Fiona explained to me that the interview was being done because I had refused food and fluids and that it was Home Office procedure to carry out the interview.

The interview kicked off and a number of questions were asked:

  • Why was I hunger striking?
  • What are my demands
  • Do I have a solicitor, etc.

After answering the questions, Fiona read out to me what I considered conditions or repercussions of me being on hunger strike and asked me if I understood what she was reading out.

I was reassured that because I was on hunger strike it didn’t mean that;

  • My case would be favoured, it will take its due course
  • It will not lead to me being granted permission to stay in the UK
  • That it didn’t mean that my removal directions would be deferred
  • That it will not lead to the progress of my immigration or Asylum case being altered or delayed
  • That it will not lead to me being released.

To mention but a few, above is what I remember.

I am very upset till today that I feel I am being threatened and patronised because of the protest. It made me feel very upset, distressed and I feel sad and depressed that indirectly we/I am being punished for hunger striking and protesting. What happened to human rights, freedom of speech and expression? Should we just keep quiet when we are not happy and pretend like everything is alright?

Is it because I am a prisoner that cannot speak out and air out my opinions and views? Is this how Britain welcomes immigrants? This is very unfair to us and I hope one day that this country, Home Office and government will protect vulnerable immigrants and refugees.

All I need is to be safe from my pursuits from my family in Uganda, it has not been a safe journey in my life especially since coming out that I am gay, but now I feel I am being punished by the one country that should give me protection. I cannot return to my country for fear of my life, it’s one of the top countries that prosecute LGBTQ people.

I am already feeling scared, frightened and I am always under the weather for being rejected by my husband’s family, community, workmates and friends. I fear for my dear life on a daily.

So trying to patronise me because I am protesting for a change that directly affects makes me feel even more anxious and angry every day.

In most questions, I told the Home Office they have a right to do whatever they want to do because I cannot control them and neither do I make their policies. I just pray for fairness and justice to prevail when it comes to my case. I lean on the hope in God that never disappoints. Only God knows destiny, no man can change what God has planned for me.

No matter what happens, let me be remembered as a Uganda Detainee that was fighting for the vulnerable and mistreated asylum seekers.

One day we shall all rest and leave this wicked world, God is in charge of our lives, Home Office can decide and throw us back in the den of lions but God shall save us.

In Healthcare, I was asked to sign a document that take away the duty of care of my health from Healthcare.

The Doctor asked me to sign so Healthcare doesn’t have to be liable for my health.

“In case any health hazard happens to you, maybe you faint or at the verge of death, if you can sign the document, we shall not touch you.”  In other words, I will have to die and healthcare, Serco and Home Office will not be liable. I refused to sign. Where is the humanity and compassion from these people that are meant to take care of us. It’s ridiculous and very frustrating.

Currently I am still on hunger strike and eating snow as I feel that’s all I want to eat right now. I am angry I feel I am not wanted in this country, let the Home Office and the Home Secretary kill me here in the UK, than returning me to a death trap in Uganda.

 

Now they are trying to take way our hope.

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It’s me again, still here in Yarl’s Wood.

It’s been a very stressful day. We feel targeted and some of our members have been scared off by the home office and told by officers if they don’t eat it will affect their cases. There are many rumours flying around about protester’s cases. I am still trying to gather the facts but I feel tired and deflated.

They took our freedom, our dignity, our sanity, and now they are trying to take way our hope.

I was told I would not get my medication because I am not eating and I really need my anti-depressants, and I have a muscle spasm in my lower back but I can’t get any pain relief but that’s ok because the pain in my heart is worse.

I wanted to print some photos of screen-shots people sent me with messages of solidarity but I was told that would be dissent. I just wanted to cheer the girls up and let them know they are not forgotten because that is how you feel in here.

One girl just told me that officers have been talking about Diane Abbott saying she can’t do anything for you and it made me angry because even if this is true, she gave the girls hope and made them feel important.

I’m alone in my cell again.

This is good for me, I never get used to people leaving. When my first roommate left I was in bits for two weeks. That’s how it is for me. When I get close to someone and they are released or deported it affects me in different ways all at the same time. I feel happy for them if they are released of course I do but at the same time, I feel really sad for myself that I’m still here, and that I will miss them. Then I feel guilty for feeling sad and I think of myself as a really bad person. It takes me a while to get over it so that’s why I would rather be alone.

Still, when they are deported it’s worse, the staff are very careful about how they snatch a girl so you don’t get to say goodbye. They are taken to segregation where no one can protest or help them and you never see them again. Then I really have to stop thinking about them because when I do all the things that might happen to them go through my mind and it scares me. I begin to think about my own deportation and how it might happen.

I feel like I’m losing myself in here, becoming part of the furniture. I want to scream sometimes and it takes all my efforts to act in a civil manner as I’m so angry all the time. That’s not my personality and this place is changing me. I hope it’s not permanent.

Very sad foreigner Made in Britain

We are on a hunger strike because we are suffering unfair imprisonment and racist abuse in this archaic institution in Britain.

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While I cannot speak for every detainee in Yarl’s Wood I can tell you that our group of protesters who are participating in the hunger for freedom strike are of mixed backgrounds and religions but we all have one thing in common, We are detained INDIFINITELY! and we are refusing food because we are DESPERATE at the treatment we endure by the HOME OFFICE, not because of religious beliefs but rather fundamental ethics regarding our rights as HUMAN BEINGS.

We feel voiceless, forgotten and ignored.

This is a desperate measure due to desperate circumstances.

One of our group was called to see a home official on Tuesday and that same official asked her “why don’t you go back to your country” she has an asylum case pending.

It does not surprise me hear this as I believe there are many xenophobes working here, and while we were talking about it amongst ourselves a Serco manager walked past and heard one of our repeat this phrase and blurted out “that’s a good idea”.

We are on a hunger strike because we are suffering unfair imprisonment and racist abuse in this archaic institution in Britain.

 

Sorry if this sounds a little incoherent but it’s my fourth day without food.

Messages from the protest

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Serco officers just asked one of our strikers to go to the unit office to talk about her health and why she is not eating, while she was there they took her belongings and are deporting her.

She is from India has been disowned by her family there and faces serious abuse when she is returned there

We are all very distressed about this, I feel like I should be calling the police as my friend has been abducted.

Someone please help us.

One of the protesters has fainted. She has been put in a wheelchair

 

Hello from Yarl’s Wood

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Hello from Yarl’s Wood

Mixed feelings about today,

It’s good that the ladies feel like they have achieved something and I do too in a way.

The Home Office officials refused to talk to us as a group but we stood our ground. The directors strong armed them into it and they did eventually talk to us, although they did not really say anything worth listening to. Just things like our detention is lawful (doesn’t feel like it) and they don’t detain asylum seekers and torture victims, but I can tell you this place would be more or less empty without them. We demanded to know how they can justify detaining people indefinitely and they said each case is different and judged individually, so when I said that there isn’t a pattern and it seems like a universal response from the home office they claimed that we would see a pattern because they have grounds to detain us. But let me tell you there is no pattern in the circumstances of detainees, only the reasons given by the home office.

They refused to state that rape is torture and said “no comment” on that matter. It can be summed up as talking to a brick wall like every other occasion I’ve had to speak with an immigration officer.

Then she passed a piece a paper around and insisted we write our names on it so “they could reply in writing to our demands”.

But we all know this was a scare tactic to make people apprehensive and worry about their individual cases. I was so touched when not only everyone who had sat there wrote their names but the ladies prevented from coming where we were [the home office department] and sat in the corridor instead, insisted on writing their names.

I feel pressure to help the ladies which I put on myself, even before this protest I felt the same when I see people struggle with their paperwork or even when they don’t know where to go for something or just when I see someone crying I stop and ask if they are ok. Some people are in such a bad way and they react badly but that’s ok because the way I see it I might have been the only person to speak to them that day, and I know they just miss their families or they have serious psychological issues, I feel sorry for people.

A manager told me last week that I should concentrate on my case and be more selfish as I might feel better if I stop taking on people’s problems. He might have a point but I can’t help but have empathy and maybe that’s why I could never do a job like his. I empathise with people regardless of the colour of their skin, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and political beliefs. To me people are people, and we all want the same things on a human level. We want to feel safe, we want to love and be loved, and we want to feel accepted.

I’m getting emotional now and not sure what I’m writing about anymore I think the lack of caffeine and food is having an effect on my ability to concentrate, god knows I’ll be talking absolute gibberish tomorrow x x x

Thank you all for your support we appreciate it x x  👍👍😊😊👣

Hungry foreigner Made in Britain

Messages from the peaceful protest

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There are currently 18 people staging a peaceful cit in protest outside the home office department in Yarl’s Wood, some have been prevented from the sit in by a prison lock down.

A Home Office official just walked past us and asked if we are having a party, the home office workers know we are on a hunger strike but they keep walking past with their lunches.

The Home Office must talk to us as a group, we wont be divided.

More people are joining the sit in throughout the centre, including 14 men from the family wing of the prison.

 

We are still in the legal department.

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We are still in the legal department.

They asked if there was anything we can do for you. And we kept quiet. They asked whether we would want to see the home office. They said that we can make you an appointment to see you one by one.

And we said we don’t want to be seen like that. We want you to meet all of us, as a group with one representative to talk. They went away and said they would get back to us.

We will remain here until the end of the day.

The Strikers’ Demands

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After an initial 3 day hunger strike where the Home Office refused to acknowledge the hunger strike, it is clear that they are not listening to us. On Monday 26/02/18, we will cease to participate in detention, we will not eat, use their facilities or work for them.

The detainees are thus staging an all out strike to protest the Home Office’s continued immoral practices. Our demands are for a fair system and an end to the hostile environment policy towards people with legitimate reasons to remain in the U.K.

  • We want an end to indefinite detention and a return to the original plan of the 28 day limit.
  • We want the Home Office to respect Article 8.
  • We want the Home office to respect the European Convention of Human Rights regarding refugees and asylum seekers.
  • We want the Home Office to respect due process and stop deporting people before their cases are decided or appeals are heard.
  • We want due processes before we are imprisoned on immigration matters.
  • We want a fair bail process and the Home Office to end the process of selective evidence disclosure to the immigration tribunal courts and instead disclosure of all evidence to ensure a fair judgement is reached.
  • We want adequate healthcare and especially the mental health nurse to stop operating as an extension of the Home Office asking people such questions as, “did you know you were going to stay in the UK when you entered?”
  • We want the Home Office to stop detaining the vulnerable people, that is victims of rape, that is torture, all forms of torture, trafficking, forced labour, the disabled, the mentally ill and so on.
  • We want amnesty for all people who have lived in the UK for more than 10 years and an end to the exiling of those who came as children and are culturally British.
  • We want an end to the Home Office’s of employing detainees to do menial work for £1 per hour, it prays on the vulnerable and forces them to participate in their own detention.
  • We want an end to charter flights and the snatching of people from their beds in the night and herding them like animals.

I want to stress that there are as many demands as there are detainees, everyone in detention is unfairly treated, and all we want is a fair process.

This is the only option we are left with to express how we feel. We will not eat till we are free.