Not surprisingly: another Immigration Removal Centre disturbance

"At 6.30 am on Wednesday 14 March, an attempted removal of an immigration detainee in Campsfield House was forcibly resisted. Several other detainees then sought to intervene and obstruct this removal and began then to threaten staff and start fires in the centre." John Reid Home Secrectary

On Wednesday 14th March detainees at Campsfield IRC gave a robust response to what was described as a heavy handed attempt to remove one of the detainees from the main dormitory to be taken to the airport for removal. This is the second time in four months that the UK detention estate has been rocked by protesting detainees.

Evan Harris MP calls for closure of Campsfield IRC

Message below from: 'Barbed Wire Britain Network to end Refugee and Migrant Detention' and 'Campaign to Close Campsfield'

Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Refugee and Migrant Detention and the Campaign to Close Campsfield support without reservation the detainees involved in the uprising in Campsfield immigration prison on Wednesday 14th March 2007. Our thoughts are with those who have been injured.

It is the United Kingdom's shame that detainees feel the need to react in this way. Their actions are entirely understandable as they are usually ignored and often have no other way of making their voice heard against the racist and unfair system which abuses them.

Migrants - whether refugees or migrant workers - are not criminals and should not be imprisoned. Immigration detention is documented to cause severe trauma amongst detainees, many of whom have already fled from torture or political repression. Detainees also routinely face racist, physical and even sexual abuse in immigration detention centres.

Injustice is cumulative. Among the issues for detainees are:

Not a single immigration detainee is in detention for committing a crime or being charged with one.

An increasing number of detainees at Campsfield have told the Home Office they wish to return to their home country but continue to be detained for months because the Home Office can't sort it out.

There is even less access to legal advice than there was.

Some detainees have been criminalised through no fault of their own - they may have served a sentence for arriving in the UK with forged papers (the only way for many refugees to get here), or they may have been picked up for working without papers or working while seeking asylum (asylum seekers are banned from work).

Violence against against detainees continues to be a serious problem on removal - in the detention centre, in transit vans, in the airport, even on the plane -: a number of civil cases against guards and their employers are outstanding.

According to a detainee interviewed by BBC, this incident came about in response to an illegal removal during which immigration officers beat as they attempted to deport a man whose asylum case had not yet been resolved. If the man was, as reported, an Algerian, history repeats itself. It was the violent removal of an Algerian detainee that triggered the first mass revolt at Campsfield in June 1994, the first of many mass protests by immigration detainees in the UK.

Unfortunately, these cases are all too frequent. Detainees are all too often beaten up during transit and removal, and are deported to countries where they are in immediate danger.

The policy of BWB is that all immigration detention centres should be closed and deportations should be halted immediately.

Contact: Ring 01865 726804 / 01865 558145 / 01993 704 994 for further details/interview

Barbed Wire Britain Network to end Refugee And Migrant Detention
and Campaign To Close Campsfield
c/o 60 Great Clarendon St
Oxford
OX2 6AX
01865 558145 / 01993 703994
www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk
www.closecampsfield.org.uk

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