This Is Why Over 100 Women Are Currently On Hunger Strike Inside Yarl’s Wood

Since the middle of last week over 100 women have been on hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre. The strike is a protest against the continued detention of people at such centres in across the United Kingdom.

As *The Debrief *has previously reported, Yarl’s Wood is one of 11 immigration detention centres in Britain. It is run by a private sector company - Serco. Yarl’s Wood holds up to 410 people, mostly women, some of whom are pregnant, some of whom are survivors of rape, human trafficking and some of whom have health conditions.

Once inside Yarl’s Wood, these women are awaiting and, often, fighting deportation. The system and its processes are highly controversial and have faced criticism from experts, including the former Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Many of these women have done nothing wrong. Around half of the women in Yarl's Wood have claimed asylum and many are still waiting for decisions and appeals to be heard. But, even if they aren't criminals they are detained as though they are, in a place which, they say, ‘feels like a prison’. To all intents and purposes, it is a prison.

The website and platform, Detained Voices, has posted statements from the detainees, allowing them to explain why they are taking part in a hunger strike in their own words.

‘I feel very isolated in here (Yarl’s Wood)’ one anonymous detainee, who described themselves as a ‘foreigner’ who was born in Britain, writes. ‘It’s not like just a lonely feeling. It’s a different kind of isolation. I feel like I have already been removed to a place with different laws, removed from my friends and family, removed from society, so far removed from every comfort’.

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Continuing, they say, ‘I find myself missing silly things like animals. I want to play with my dog. I have not seen a child in so long, do little people exist anymore…I am busy in here though, because English is my first language people always ask me to read documents for them and I want to help as best I can of course I do but it does take its toll on me. A lady was given a ticket yesterday and she was so distressed, it could have been avoided had she been provided with the help she needed as she does not read English’.

Before signing off, the detainee writes ‘I have to go now as I just received a text to go to reception. Every time I get a text message, I have a mini panic attack. Everyone does, and it’s doing my head right in’.

In a statement, published on the Detained Voices website, the strikers’ demands are listed as follows:

‘Our demands are for a fair system and an end to the hostile environment policy towards people with legitimate reasons to remain in the U.K.

 We want an end to indefinite detention and a return to the original plan of the 28-day limit.

 We want the Home Office to respect Article 8.

 We want the Home office to respect the European Convention of Human Rights regarding refugees and asylum seekers.

 We want the Home Office to respect due process and stop deporting people before their cases are decided or appeals are heard.

 We want due processes before we are imprisoned on immigration matters.

 We want a fair bail process and the Home Office to end the process of selective evidence disclosure to the immigration tribunal courts and instead disclosure of all evidence to ensure a fair judgement is reached.

 We want adequate healthcare and especially the mental health nurse to stop operating as an extension of the Home Office asking people such questions as, “did you know you were going to stay in the UK when you entered?”

 We want the Home Office to stop detaining the vulnerable people, that is victims of rape, that is torture, all forms of torture, trafficking, forced labour, the disabled, the mentally ill and so on.

 We want amnesty for all people who have lived in the UK for more than 10 years and an end to the exiling of those who came as children and are culturally British.

 We want an end to the Home Office’s of employing detainees to do menial work for £1 per hour, it prays on the vulnerable and forces them to participate in their own detention.

 We want an end to charter flights and the snatching of people from their beds in the night and herding them like animals.’

*The Debrief *contacted the Home Office for a comment. A spokesperson said ‘detention and removal are essential parts of effective immigration controls, especially in support for the removal of those with no lawful basis to stay in the UK’. They added, ‘we take the welfare of our detainees very seriously and any detainees who choose to refuse food and fluid are closely monitored by on site healthcare professionals’.

However, it is worth noting that the Home Office did not explicitly recognise the existence of the hunger strike. Additionally, the spokesperson said ‘we do not detain individuals indefinitely. When people are detained, it is for the minimum time possible and detention is reviewed on a regular basis. Any decision to maintain detention is made on a case by case basis but their welfare remains of the utmost importance throughout’.

The definition of ‘indefinite’ is something which is ‘lasting for an unknown or unstated length of time’.Britain is the only EU member state with no limit on the time that asylum seekers can be detained, those held at Yarl’s Wood and centres like it do not know how long they will be detained for.

In 2016 *The Debrief *interviewed Elisha (not her real name). She was held at Yarl’s Wood for 18 months before being released. The Home Office says that the majority of detainees are held for 4 months of less.

Report after report after report has shown that what goes on at Yarl’s Wood is not only failing the women inside it but not meeting the needs of vulnerable women and, above all, out of step with the systems other countries have put in place for dealing with refugees and asylum seekers.

Belgium, for example, runs ‘return houses’ for asylum seeker families, as well as those awaiting return to other nations. Staff are on hand to advise and prepare families for different outcomes – being granted asylum, or returned. In Canada asylum seekers are not detained – fewer than 4% abscond and this system has been found to be no less than 93% cheaper than the cost of detention.

The strike continues. Women involved in the strike have said they will continue to protest not only by refusing to eat but also by refusing to work in the centre's kitchens or gardens - for which they are normally paid a nominal amount of £1 a day.

**Follow Vicky on Twitter **@Victoria_Spratt

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.