{"id":7944,"date":"2018-03-12T13:01:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=7944"},"modified":"2018-03-12T13:01:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:01:49","slug":"i-befriend-women-detained-at-yarls-wood-their-life-in-immigration-limbo-is-excruciating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/business-law\/law\/i-befriend-women-detained-at-yarls-wood-their-life-in-immigration-limbo-is-excruciating\/","title":{"rendered":"I befriend women detained at Yarl’s Wood: their life in immigration limbo is excruciating"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy am I still here?\u201d This is the question I\u2019m most frequently asked by detained women who I\u2019ve befriended at Yarl\u2019s Wood Immigration Removal Centre<\/a> in Bedfordshire. The centre is mainly for women, but also holds families with children over 18-years-old and has a short-term holding facility for men.<\/p>\n

For nearly two years, I\u2019ve been researching and volunteering as a \u201cbefriender\u201d and trustee with Yarl\u2019s Wood Befrienders<\/a>, a charitable volunteer visitors\u2019 group that offers emotional and practical support to women migrants and asylum seekers detained in Yarl\u2019s Wood. Detainees are allocated a befriender who visits them weekly until they leave the centre. But most of them don\u2019t know when that will be, as detention is indefinite under current UK immigration policy.<\/p>\n

On February 21, a group of women at Yarl\u2019s Wood began a hunger strike against these conditions, boycotting the dining services at scheduled meal times. Befrienders have also reported that some women are boycotting other services and activities in the centre, such as the library and IT room. Some women have been told by the Home Office<\/a> that they may be removed more quickly because they are refusing food.<\/p>\n

Who is detained and why<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m finding out at first-hand about the harmful effects of immigration detention on everyone involved in this complex system. But those who are detained, or re-detained, experience the most damage to their mental health<\/a> from the lack of knowledge and understanding of when and how they will leave the centre, either released in the community or removed from the UK. And although the government changed the name of \u201cimmigration detention centres\u201d to \u201cremoval centres\u201d in 2002 \u2013 suggesting detainees have imminent departures \u2013 the 222 befriended women in 2016-17 were detained for an average of 95 days. Contrary to its revised name, in 2016, 79% of the people held in Yarl\u2019s Wood were released, not removed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone subject to immigration control can be detained. Although about half the people in detention are seeking asylum, there are also foreign offenders, visa over-stayers, and disputed age and identity cases. Young adults who arrived in Britain as unaccompanied minors, but who have turned 18, can also be deported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some are awaiting notice about whether they will be transferred back to a European country through which they travelled \u2013 where the Home Office can pass responsibility for their asylum claim under rules called the Dublin Regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And contrary to popular misconceptions, EU citizens are not immune to the British detention system<\/a>. In August 2017, the Home Office sent 100 letters \u201cin error\u201d<\/a>, threatening the detention of EU citizens living in the UK, which left a lingering tone of hostility<\/a> amid the uncertainties of the post-Brexit immigration landscape.<\/p>\n

Pleas for help<\/h2>\n

There has been a history of dissent at Yarl\u2019s Wood. It was purpose built in November 2001 to house 900 detainees as part of the government\u2019s plan to remove 30,000 failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants<\/a>. Three months after the centre opened, opposition to staff restraining a detainee escalated to riots and arson<\/a> that eventually destroyed half of the centre.<\/p>\n

In a system where migrants have little to no control over the processing time and outcome of their immigration or asylum cases, and may lack English skills, detainees have demonstrated collective acts of dissent in the few ways they can inside detention centres. Collectively refusing food<\/a> \u2013 also known as \u201chunger strikes\u201d \u2013 has been a more common act of disapproval of Home Office policies and practices.<\/p>\n

With limited access to the internet, detained women have found alternative ways to individually show their dissent. I\u2019ve been told about one woman who resisted her enforced removal back to the country she fled by covering her body in oil, in order to be too slippery for officers to handle. Another appeared in pyjamas and \u201cbed hair\u201d when required to attend an interview with the high commissioner from her country of origin.<\/p>\n

Sadly, other pleas for help have been through acts of self-harm<\/a> and attempted suicide. One woman I befriended in 2016 ingested a corrosive substance in the middle of the night. Another befriender witnessed a woman swallow some pills in front of the immigration judge who denied her release on bail. In 2014, a woman detained for over two years threw herself over a stairwell<\/a>. Fortunately no lives were lost, but these upsetting stories show how desperate the situation is for some of the people detained.<\/p>\n

Throughout my volunteering and research I\u2019ve mostly been in discomfort and shock from the stories I\u2019ve heard. The criticisms and reasons for detainees protesting are clear to me. If no time limit is put on a person\u2019s detention and they are separated from their family \u2013 including mothers separated from their children \u2013 this leaves them in mental anguish. People released from detention often live in fear and anxiety of being re-detained at any time, to the extent that one woman I befriended said she was afraid to go outside. This raises wider questions about the morality of the system, including whether the current regime is contributing to mental health problems in society.<\/p>\n

Despite collaboration among scholars and independent monitoring groups<\/a>, as well as concerns and recommendations<\/a> voiced to MPs, progress on any reforms centred around the human rights of detainees has been slow.<\/p>\n

It has been 16 years since the fire caused millions of pounds worth of damage to Yarl\u2019s Wood, but it\u2019s not surprising that organised protest and dissent continues.<\/p>\n

The Samaritans can be contacted in the UK on 116 123. Papyrus is contactable on 0800 068 41 41 or by texting 07786 209 697 or emailing pat@papyrus-uk.org<\/a>. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joanne Vincett<\/a>, PhD Candidate, The Open University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Featured image:\u00a0<\/em>
\nYarl\u2019s Wood, during a 2015 public protest.
\nDarren Johnson \/ iDJ Photography via flickr.com<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy am I still here?\u201d This is the question I\u2019m most frequently asked by detained women who I\u2019ve befriended at Yarl\u2019s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. The centre is mainly for women, but also holds families with children over 18-years-old and has a short-term holding facility for men. For nearly two years, I\u2019ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[187,1129,1282,1434,2462],"class_list":["post-7944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","tag-asylum","tag-immigration","tag-law","tag-migrants","tag-yarls-wood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}