International week of actions to close detention centres

Protest and Speak Out “THIS IS A PRISON NOT A HOLIDAY CAMP” International week of actions to close detention centres 15 – 21 June 2015, 12 noon to 2pm: Parliament Square, nearest tube Westminster. CLOSE YARL’S WOOD AND ALL DETENTION CENTRES! Detention without limit – Rape by guards – No healthcare – Mothers separated from their kids – Fast Track decisions …

Read more

No retribution. Women in detention protest brutality by guards

“We were held for many hours, without food, some women fainting and ill.” On Wednesday 17 October, 200 women were “kettled” in a corridor in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire for eight hours.  The detention centre remains in “lock down”.  Some have been stopped from getting their medication.  Five women are being held …

Read more

Asylum from Rape Bulletin Winter 2010

Landmark compensation for torture victim and her family. A mother and her five children have won a precedent-setting, six figure compensation award from the Home Office for abuse and injuries sustained during deportation to Uganda in 2006. Ms A was supported throughout by WAR who found legal representation through Leigh Day & Co. solicitors. During …

Read more

Women speak out in Parliament against detention, deportation, privatisation and profiteering 14 January 2010

Women speak out in Parliament against detention, deportation, privatisation and profiteering 14 January 2010 With recent press coverage shedding light on the devastating impact of detention on children, and the public outrage that followed, it was no surprise that a meeting on the detention of mothers and other vulnerable people in the House of Commons …

Read more

Ms L wins £11,000 at Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority appeal

Ms L wins £11,000 at Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority appeal A rape survivor who was unable to give a full statement to the police applied for compensation three years later, fought an initial refusal – and won! Facts Ms L was attacked in May 2001, by a stranger. She has no memory from the middle …

Read more

Asylum from Rape Bulletin: Summer 2008

Women reunited with their children 5 March was one of the happiest occasions of this past year for many of us.  Betty A, a longstanding and much loved volunteer was reunited with the four children whom she was forced to leave behind when she fled Uganda.  The full and heart-rending story is still to be told …

Read more

Janipher Maseko fled Uganda after her mother died and she was raped by armed rebels.

She was 13 when she arrived in the UK. She was looking for a place of safety. This is what she found The Guardian, Saturday 24 November 2007 I came to this country five years ago, a desperate young teenager, alone, in search of help and safety. The last thing I expected was that I …

Read more

Women in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre on hunger strike protesting against SERCO’s draconian regime

Mothers join hunger strike Today 91 families, mainly single mothers with their children, some of whom have been detained for over three months, have joined the protest. Mothers report that after 5pm their kids go hungry as there is no food available until 8am the next morning. Children can’t manage under such harsh conditions. Most …

Read more