In the final week of Unlocking Detention, we are now looking at where we will go from here. And we believe it is a perfect opportunity to publish this speech delivered last month by Jose, from the Freed Voices group to launch Amnesty’s #WriteForRights project. Jose says, ‘hope calls for action, just as action is impossible without hope’ and shares what gave him [...]
This blog was written by Bill MacKeith, joint organiser of the Campaign to Close Campsfield, for Unlocking Detention. Photos: Campaign to Close Campsfield On 25 November 1993, two white vans arrived at Campsfield main gates, 6 miles north of Oxford. They brought the first detainees to the new Campsfield detention centre from Harmondsworth near Heathrow. Since then some 30,000 people have been [...]
The focus of this week's #Unlocked17 tour was Campsfield House, near Oxford airport. It has been an immigration detention centre for almost a quarter of a century - a 24th anniversary demonstration took place this week. Since it was converted from a young offender institution to a detention centre in November 1993, over 30,000 people have been detained here. Up to 282 [...]
In this blog, Ruth Nicholson describes a day of Music In Detention's songwriting workshops in Campsfield House. Ruth is a musician, and a volunteer both for Music In Detention (MID) and the Detention Forum. This blog was originally published by Music in Detention in March this year here where you can also listen to the music recorded in Campsfield. On a foggy, chilly morning [...]
This piece is written for Unlocking Detention by ‘Jose’ of the Freed Voices group (the author’s name has been altered to protect their identity). 'Jose' was detained in Campsfield detention centre. Before I went to detention, I had posters of musicians on my wall. No revolutionaries, or civil rights leaders or anything like that. I think I maybe had a ‘Banksy in [...]
About the Author: Melanie Griffiths is a former COMPAS DPhil student and is currently an ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol. She is leading the 'Detention, Deportability and the Family: Migrant Men’s Negotiations of the Right to Respect for Family Life' project, examining the family lives [...]
This week, Unlocking Detention shone a spotlight on Campsfield House detention centre in Kidlington, a village 7 miles from Oxford. Up to 282 men are locked up there. Campsfield House was originally a young offender’s institution and became an immigration detention centre in 1993. https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/799929715930857472 https://twitter.com/AsylumWelcome/status/798071101821714432 https://twitter.com/AsylumWelcome/status/798072693786550272 https://twitter.com/MIDdetention/status/799639720066248705 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/800282541462880257 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/798943724965363712 https://twitter.com/liviels/status/799385982927769600 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/800002948617093120 https://twitter.com/t1sander/status/799542863864483841 https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/798141685020688385 The first piece published this week was a powerful [...]
This week Unlocking Detention has been ‘visiting’ Campsfield detention centre, run by Mitie, the largest single private provider of detention services to the Home Office. (In a first for our regular live Q&As) on Friday afternoon, Ben from Detention Action conducted a live Twitter Q&A with two friends currently detained in Campsfield - Christopher and Jose. You can recap the whole interview below: https://twitter.com/DetentionForum/status/799625012420444160 [...]
By Liz Peretz, Campaign to Close Campsfield Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide People held in immigration detention centres are among the most vulnerable people in our society. Many detainees have suffered torture or ill treatment, have significant and chronic health problems, or have been detained for prolonged periods of time without any prospect of removal. Furthermore, they are powerless and may fear [...]
This year, the Unlocking Detention blog is particularly focusing on the impact of detention on an individual’s immediate social circle – their friends and family. This piece is written by "Mishka", of the Freed Voices group (the author’s name has been altered to protect their identity.) Trigger warning: suicide; torture. I am a twin. We are identical - he has [...]