My name is Lydia and I am a detainee at Yarl's wood. This is my second time in detention. The 24th November 2015 would be the third attempt to remove me to Nigeria, a country I left 17 years ago when I was less than 10 years old. In fact I only stayed in Nigeria briefly and do not have any relatives back in Nigeria neither do I know the country.
At the first attempt to remove me from the UK, I was not well yet the healthcare in Yarl's wood declared me fit to travel. The healthcare section works with the Home Office and shares your information without consent. The Home Office worker threatened that I will be handcuffed and be escorted out of the country with 4 escorts the next time. The second attempt, it was a chartered flight to Nigeria. I saw very sick people deported, a heavily pregnant lady and a lady with mental health issues. Mass deportation is so secretive and allows the Home Office to bend rules as they see fit. The waste of resources is also astronomical.
The lady with mental health issue is named Gift and her husband is British. She was deported to Nigeria on the chartered flight of 26th May 2015 after staying in detention from March 2015 and had apparently had mental health issues for many years. On the day of the flight, this lady did not understand what was going on. In fact most of the time, she didn't talk and put on different personalities on different days. The people that travelled to Nigeria with her said the immigration officers didn't know what to do with her because she wasn't well but they still had to let her go. We have not heard from her since then.
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My name is Laide and I was deported to Nigeria in April. That was the second attempt to remove me from the UK. The first attempt, I was declared unfit to travel because my blood pressure rose dangerously high and although I had an on-going case in court. I was called to the legal department and I went. From there, I was led to reception and an officer went to pack my belongings. I was escorted by 5 big men and when I was scared and tried to explain myself, they chained me on my hands, waist and legs. They took me back to Nigeria like that and with laundry bags. I am in my 60s; what strength did I have to fight 5 men? Yet they chained me down and left me crying and screaming for help.
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My name is Zara and I am 63 years old. I reside in Nigeria and only came to the UK for holiday/ I was detained and kept locked up for 6 weeks because the Home Office wrongly accused me of forging my documents. I appealed and I won the case. The Home Office has since changed the law to make it impossible to appeal to the courts; therefore the appeal process is in-house. As a result, they are able to get away with these atrocities they commit.
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My name is Adeola and I spent 19 and half years in the UK before I was deported. I was the breadwinner for my family and without the money; we are barely able to survive.
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My name is Ngozi and I did not grow up in Nigeria, yet the Home office wants to send me back to Nigeria despite the fact that all my family are legally resident in the UK and I have nobody in Nigeria. I am nearly 30 years old and I only spent 6 years in Nigeria when I was young. I have been threatened by the Home Office that I will be chained and taken by force.
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My name is Kenny and the Home Office have tried to deport me to Nigeria on 3 occasions, despite the fact that my husband is British. At the last attempt, I was escorted by 6 escorts who were shouting that I should go back to my country and stop taking their resources. I fought back and said I do not take anything from them in the first place. Miraculously, I wasn't deported. However, the racial discrimination I suffered is still in my mind and is traumatising.
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I grew up with my father and step-mother. And after a childhood of physical, verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of my step-mother, I reconciled with my mother who is a citizen of the UK and had been in the UK all these years after separation from my father. My mother has got her own business and a charity and supports the welfare of people in the community. She does not depend on the government and contributes to the economy of the country.
After reconciliation, she decided to bring over to the UK for medical treatment that resulted from prolonged physical abuse I sustained. After several applications, the system has brought me to the detention centre thereby interrupting my medical treatment, denying my mother the joy and happiness of reconciliation with her long parted daughter and faced with the harsh treatment of deportation and a 10 years ban from the UK.
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As a graduate of one of the federal universities in Nigeria, I had a promising future and career ahead of me. I decided I would leave the shores of Nigeria to study abroad and establish a private life outside the country. I attended the presentation of one of the universities in the United Kingdom and got information from the university that settling in the UK after studies was possible as there would be working visa category to switch after studying.
I came into the country and luckily got a job and established private life here in the UK by having a long term relationship with a citizen of the UK and reuniting with family members settled here.
After spending years in the UK without criminal record and proven my private life, I am forcefully brought to the detention centre without an opportunity to voice out my case and facing threats of deportation.
Where do I start from? How do they expect my partner to abandon his life and career here in the UK to follow me to Nigeria? After leaving the shores of Nigeria for so long and helping to the building of UK, how am I expected to start from? What happened to the assurance of settlement after study given to international students after spending so much. There are other countries -Canada, Australia... can the UK give me back the number of years I spent building life here? This is unfair.
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My name is Joy, I have been in detention centre since more than two months now in Yarl's wood. I came to the United Kingdom in 2003 as a result of the problems I was facing in Nigeria and I had no family of my own to support.
Since then, I have been in the UK. I submitted many applications to the Home Office of which they refused telling me to go back to my country that I don't have any ties there. I have lived in this country for 12 years, I have no family to go back to. I might end up on the streets in Nigeria. this will end my life because the is no security in Nigeria.
