FLIGHT RIOT

Police have taken violent action to break a mass hunger strike at Harmondsworth detention centre. On the 1st of April over 300 detainees went on hunger strike in protest. They were angered by the brutal treatment and repeated injustice heaped on them by the asylum system. They are being deported without having their cases properly heard, without having committed any crime and after abuse by detention centre staff. Most have been placed on the fast-track deportation process, meaning they have no time for protracted legal appeals. Many are also victims of torture and have been denied the right to see specialists to assess their evidence. In response almost all the detainees occupied the prison courtyard.

SchNEWS spoke to an activist from the SOAS Detainee Support Group, who told us, “Between 5 and 6 in the morning on the 5th of April around 50 police in riot gear stormed into the immigration removal centre and took 30 detainees away. Most of them have been put in isolation or into the common prison population. This effectively cuts them off from the outside world. One detainee we managed to talk to told us he is bruised all over his body, has injuries from handcuffs and has a damaged ankle. He also told us that he saw another detainee being grossly mishandled by police. We do not know this second detainee’s whereabouts or what happened to him. Those left in Harmondsworth are feeling very intimidated but say they are coping. Some detainees are still refusing food but we do not know how many.”

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre is run by Kalyx, a subsidiary of multinational company Sodexo (formerly Sodexho).

For more on asylum action www.noborders.org.uk and www.soasdetainee.blogspot.com

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