Last year, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons concluded a report on Yarl’s Wood: “Yarl’s Wood is rightly a place of national concern … Yarl’s Wood is failing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable women held … We have raised many of the concerns in this report before. Pregnant detainees and women with mental health problems should only be held in the most exceptional circumstances.” Over the weekend, it was reported that the Home Office refused to reveal how many women have been raped or sexually assaulted because “disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests” of companies that run Yarl’s Wood. Serco runs Yarl’s Wood, and G4S provides Yarl’s Wood health services. Today, the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner demanded that the Home Office release information about the number of pregnant women held in immigration detention, which would mean primarily Yarl’s Wood. This demand comes after months of the Home Office refusing to answer questions, refusing to acknowledge that questions and requests have been made. When it comes to women, the only thing that counts is corporate and State profit. Mass produced illegality is big business, generally. The big business of women’s illegality has been secured in black sites in our backyards. Across the suburban spectrum of so-called liberal representative democracies, women asylum seekers are being renditioned.
Yarl’s Wood is filled with pregnant women, women trauma survivors, lesbian women, African women, women torture survivors, women seeking help, and it is as it has always been, a special “hell on earth” designed to torture precisely those women. Ira Putilova, a Russian LGBTQ activist who sought asylum in England and was thrown into Yarl’s Wood, reflected on the case of Prossie N, a Ugandan LGBTQ activist who was deported to Uganda: “We came and left, but Yarl’s Wood stayed and we should do something with it. Help people inside. … Because borders and detention centres should disappear and all homophobes and racists should be sent to the moon! Fuck them! Free Prossie N!”
Borders and detentions centers must disappear. This is the inhuman geography of purchased security, in which the State acts as nothing more than the bouncer at the door of the global club of “commercial interests.” The time for “concern” is over. Yarl’s Wood is a black site in which women are being abused in an ever growing infinite of ways. It is an abomination, and it is being replicated everywhere. Tear it down … now. Shut Yarl’s Wood and its fraternal order of detention centers across the “free world” today.
(Photo Credit 1: The Establishment) (Photo Credit 2: BBC News)
Yarl’s Wood officer accused of raping female detainee http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37694762
‘Vulnerable’ asylum seeker allegedly raped by detention officers at Yarl’s Wood
http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/vulnerable-asylum-seeker-allegedly-raped-by-detention-officers-at-yarl-s-wood-1-7634728
Tenth protest outside Yarl’s Wood this weekend calling for closure http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/tenth-protest-outside-yarl-8217-s-wood-this-weekend-calling-for-closure/story-29950005-detail/story.html
Yarl’s Wood demonstration draws up to 2,000 campaigners https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/03/yarls-wood-demonstration-brexit-vote
Activists protest for closure of immigration removal centre
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/activists-protest-for-closure-of-immigration-removal-centre/vp-BBxQYDV
CIE en Reino Unido: cárceles sin fecha de salida
https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/global/32676-carceles-sin-fecha-salida-cie-reino-unido.html
Home Office ‘locked up domestic abuse victim and lost her anxiety medication’
http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/24/home-office-locked-up-domestic-abuse-victim-and-lost-her-anxiety-medication-6403143/
Calling Home https://vimeo.com/204234621
Women refugees in UK still facing dehumanising abuse – but who is listening? http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/women-refugees-uk-still-facing-dehumanising-abuse-who-listening-1609268
Pointless, cruel & expensive: It’s time to close Yarl’s Wood
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/03/06/the-detention-of-asylum-seekers-must-stop
Home Office tells Jamaican man to talk to family online after removal https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/07/home-office-tells-jamaican-man-talk-to-family-online-after-removal
Mother-of-three to be forcibly deported on Jamaica charter flight – after 25 years in the UK http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mother-of-three-sophia-uk-deported-jamaica-charter-flight-25-years-a7615661.html
A robust system needn’t rely on detention. So why are vulnerable women being locked up? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/robust-asylum-system-neednt-rely-detention-vulnerable-women/
‘They will get you’: Britain’s refugee detention centres are no go areas for journalists http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/they-will-come-get-you-britains-refugee-detention-centres-are-no-go-areas-journalists-1613940
Yarl’s Wood is the ‘ruthless border policy’ Theresa May doesn’t want you to hear about
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/yarls-wood-ruthless-border-policy-theresa-may-doesnt-want-remember-general-election/
Greens vow to end immigration detention and decriminalise prostitution http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-end-immigration-detention-prostitution-decriminalise-yarls-wood-a7733841.html
Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre Is at the Front Line of British State Racism https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/yarls-wood-detention-centre-is-at-the-front-line-of-british-state-racism
It’s time to shut down Yarl’s Wood detention centre http://www.redpepper.org.uk/its-time-to-shut-down-yarls-wood-detention-centre/
Yarl’s Wood: Shut It Down! https://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/vice-yarls-wood-protest/591e1c409e40238b082706e5?car
Amplifying hidden voices at Yarl’s Wood https://www.varsity.co.uk/comment/13063
Why debate about immigration can’t just be for elections http://www.thedebrief.co.uk/news/opinion/why-debate-about-immigration-policy-cant-just-be-for-elections-20170667465
Hannah Khalil: ‘My new play shows the horrors of the immigration system’ http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/hannah-khalil-detention-refugee-week-scar-test_43904.html
Hannah Khalil: ‘With theatre you can get into people’s hearts’ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jun/25/theatre-q-and-a-hannah-khalil
We came from Romania to build a life, and were locked up for sleeping rough http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/immigration-brexit-yarls-wood-a7832456.html
Home Office breached woman’s human rights in Yarl’s Wood ‘punishment room’ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/27/kenyan-asylum-seeker-human-rights-yarls-wood-punishment-room
Yarl’s Wood: Home Office locked up woman in ‘freezing’ punishment room for 28 hours in breach of law http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yarls-wood-home-office-immigrant-woman-freezing-punishment-room-28-hours-detention-centre-rights-a7864321.html
Road to purgatory: Indefinite detention in the UK http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/08/09/road-to-purgatory-indefinite-detention-in-the-uk
Tortured, Raped And Detained: How Linh Was Betrayed By The Home Office http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/patrick-page1/tortured-raped-and-detain_b_18248328.html
Vulnerable women ‘still locked up in Yarl’s Wood immigration centre’ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/01/vulnerable-women-still-locked-up-in-yarls-wood-immigration-centre
Refugee: Yarl’s Wood detention centre was like room where I was raped https://news.sky.com/story/refugee-yarls-wood-detention-centre-was-like-room-where-i-was-raped-11108023
More rape and torture victims being held at Yarl’s Wood, report says https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/15/yarls-wood-chief-inspector-prisons-report-rape-torture
Rape not accepted as form of torture, says new report on Yarl’s Wood
http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/rape-not-accepted-as-form-of-torture-says-new-report-on-yarl-s-wood-1-8246630
Asylum seekers face appeals ‘lottery’ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42153862#
Doctors tell Home Office to scrap immigration removal centres https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/04/bma-calls-for-home-office-to-phase-out-immigration-removal-centres
‘I survived sexual violence – then I was detained at Yarl’s Wood’
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/survivors-sexual-violence-still-detained-yarls-wood-breach-government-policy/
Asylum seekers face appeals ‘lottery‘https://jacksonobserver.com/asylum-seekers-face-appeals-lottery/
‘I thought she was an intern’: when asylum interviews go wrong https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/11/i-thought-she-was-an-intern-asylum-interview-goes-wrong
Homeless people could avoid life-saving services, if there’s a risk of deportation http://theconversation.com/homeless-people-could-avoid-life-saving-services-if-theres-a-risk-of-deportation-92907
Britain: Immigration detainees end hunger strike, continue protests https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/britain-immigration-detainees-end-hunger-strike-continue-protests
Dire conditions at UK immigration detention centers http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/8479/dire-conditions-at-uk-immigration-detention-centers
The Home Office wants to keep the horrors of Yarl’s Wood a secret – here’s what happened to me https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yarls-wood-shaw-report-home-office-indefinite-detention-a8463711.html
“From one hell to another”: The detention of Chinese women who have been trafficked to the UK https://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/hell/
More than 500 victims of trafficking detained in 2018, UK study finds https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jul/09/more-than-500-victims-of-trafficking-detained-in-2018-uk-study-finds
Yarl’s Wood: Trafficking victims ‘detained for months’ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-48910326
Why are so many vulnerable Chinese women being detained at Yarl’s Wood? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/many-vulnerable-chinese-women-detained-yarls-wood/
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