SURROUND HARMONDSWORTH #6:  Mass demonstration at largest UK detention centre

 

Detainees & ex-detainees demand Parliamentary Inquiry back the call to end detention

 

Saturday 7th February, 1pm, Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre

(formerly Harmondsworth & Colnbrook detention centres)

Colnbrook By-Pass, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 0HB

 

This Saturday the Movement for Justice is holding the sixth Surround Harmondsworth demonstration since last June; It will be a week before the Parliamentary Inquiry into immigration detention is due to issue its report and a month after the latest court ruling that the notorious Detained Fast Track process in Unlawful.

 

These demonstrations are the focus of a growing national movement exposing the truth about the inherent abuses and racism of immigration detention, fighting to shut it down and end 'Fast Track', and challenging the political system that scapegoats immigrants & asylum seekers for the social problems that its policies have created.

 

Surround Harmondsworth is the voice for the army of men and women who are fighting or have fought against the detention system on the inside - individually and collectively, from uprisings and mass protests to the courageous action of women detainees in Yarl's Wood who have defied intimidation and cover-up to speak out against sexual abuse. Whether they are now outside or still inside, they are determined to build an integrated movement to eradicate this injustice from British society.

 

Surround Harmondsworth #6 comes at a crucial turning point. The following week the Parliamentary Inquiry chaired by Sarah Teather MP publishes the findings of its investigation of immigration detention. The Court of Appeal has ruled that it is unlawful to keep asylum seekers with appeals pending on Detained Fast Track; all stages of Fast Track have now been declared unlawful by the courts. Thanks to the struggles of detainees past & present, the fight against detention is now widely recognised as the central battle for human rights in Britain "The Black Hole at the Heart of British Justice" (The Independent 06/01/2015).

 

The Inquiry has a clear mandate to demand:

 

1. That Detained Fast Track must be abolished because everyone on it suffers a grave miscarriage of justice.

 

2. That all detention centres must close because immigration detention is inherently racist & unjust.

 

On 7th February detainees, ex-detainees, asylum seekers, migrants and their supporters, friends & families will be testifying to the inhumanity of detention, giving voice to our anger and outrage, and calling on the Inquiry - and all public figures and organisations who are challenging detention - to draw the only possible conclusion and demand the immediate abolition of immigration detention.

 

CONTACT: 

Antonia Bright (MFJ chair) 07930 302 263

Tony Gard (MFJ National Organiser) 07587 693 316

email mfj@ueaa.net

 

 

MFJ written submission to the Detention Inquiry 

Submission Appendices 

 

Video compilation of Surround Harmondsworth demonstrations

 

Organisations supporting the Surround Harmondsworth Demonstrations: Unity Centre Glasgow, NUS Black Students Campaign, Birkbeck Black Students Committee, SOAS Detainee Support Group, Leeds No Borders, London Guantanamo Campaign, Bristol Dignity for Asylum Seekers, London Black Revolutionaries, No One is Illegal, This is Not a Gateway, Myrdle Court Press, WSSAG Wales, Right to Remain, Brent Anti-Racism Campaign, Anti Raids Network, Close Campsfield Campaign, Lambeth UNISON, MAX (Movement Against Xenophobia), SOAS Student Union, Beyond Borders Tyneside, Teesside Solidarity Movement

 

Video introduction to MFJ