Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group - 1 July 2024 Meeting Highlights

"In prison you count down the number of days, in a detention centre you count up”

At our July meeting we were very pleased to welcome Mary Barrett who talked about her volunteer work with the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, (GDWG). Mary has been a volunteer visitor to the immigration removal centres at Gatwick Airport for a number of years and also participates in the related Refugee Tales project.

By way of background, the UK is the only country in Western Europe that detains people indefinitely under immigration rules. In the year ending June 2023, the UK detained 20,354 people in immigration detention.

“Many people enter detention having already experienced trauma. Detention is an isolating and anxiety-inducing experience that causes harm. Since 2000, there have been 41 deaths in immigration detention in England and Wales, 18 of which were self-inflicted, including two in 2023.” (GDWG)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates, ‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.’ Indefinite detention is both a breach of human rights and of the rule of law.

So there is an interesting overlap with the work of Amnesty.

Essentially GDWG works to improve the well-being of people held in detention, by offering friendship, practical support and advocating for fair treatment. Set up in 1995, when the Immigration Service began to detain people at a holding centre near Gatwick Airport, it now has around 70 volunteers. The volunteers visit and befriend people held in detention at Brook House and Tinsley House, both currently run by Serco. Since May 2017, there has also been a pre-departure unit at Tinsley House, where families can be held for up to 72 hours. GDWG has helped over 20,000 people since it started.

Mary explained that the experience of detention is traumatic. People are held for indefinite periods which has a terrible impact on their mental health. There are currently 700 men held in the two Gatwick centres. Work is available in the two centres for detainees in return for which they receive only £5 per day. Life is cruelly monotonous.

GDWP offers the following assistance :

• Weekly visits to reduce isolation, show support and act as a contact with the outside world
• Second-hand clothing, phone credit cards
• Supermarket vouchers and support for those experiencing destitution after detention which is horribly common
• Support for families who wish to visit relatives held in detention
• Referrals to, and liaison with, solicitors due to the lack of good quality legal advice.

The continuing aims of GDWG include :

• A 28 day time limit on detention so that nobody is held indefinitely
• The right to work for anybody whose case for asylum takes longer than 6 months
• Access to high quality interpreter and translation services for detainees
• An approach to asylum grounded not in hostility

Interestingly, it is illegal to detain a victim of torture. In 2021 the UK paid out over £9.3 million in unlawful detention and false imprisonment claims.

Mary then highlighted “Refugee Tales”, a GDWG outreach project. Since 2015, Refugee Tales has published stories of people held in indefinite immigration detention and has also run ‘Walk with Us’ , inviting people who have experienced detention to join walks with GDWG upon their release.

Thank you very much to Margaret from Sutton Amnesty for putting us in touch with Mary. It was an insightful and informative talk which left us wanting to help.

Amnesty Futures and the AIUK AGM

Our Chair updated the group on the successful outcome from the Amnesty International UK AGM in Sheffield. All the Ordinary Resolutions put forward by Amnesty Futures had passed with overwhelming numbers in favour. This included those resolutions proposed by Sutton Amnesty. As a result the Board will need to take a number of actions to support local groups and other activists.