05 August 2001

This is an extract from a letter written by an asylum seeker detained without charge at HMP Liverpool (Walton), where more than 50 people are on hunger strike.

We are locked in as prisoners here at Walton and the conditions grow worse every day. Assaults, verbal and physical intimidation are persistent in here. Detainees are isolated in total seclusion if they try to question prison officers' activities. Some are bundled with force and taken within the prison where they are [given] antidepressants and sleeping tablets to knock them out.

We are forced to eat what- ever is available, otherwise we starve. We face repeated insults from other prisoners within the wing/landing and in certain cases we are spat upon.

We have our letters read by prison officers before being sent to the recipient or binned if found to be sensitive. We have our phone calls censored and monitored with a time limitation of about two minutes for the entire week if lucky.

An immigration officer is always present on the prison landing, seven days a week. He repeatedly warns that his duties are to prepare deportation papers for those detainees who want to return to their country of origin. He hasn't got any answers whatsoever.