Home | Friday 6th August 2010 | Issue 734
CAMPSFIELD HOUSE HUNGER STRIKES
Detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre near Oxford are the most recent to go on hunger strike over the inhumane treatment and prolonged incarceration at these institutions. Earlier this year, hunger strikes took place at both Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth Detention Centres (see SchNEWS 713).
The strike of 147 of the 216 male detainees at Campsfield began on Monday (2nd), some of the demonstrators having been kept at detention centres for over three years. In a public statement, the strikers emphasised the mental stress they experienced due to being separated from their families and being imprisoned indefinitely without any prospect of release. For the removal process itself they claimed they were ‘tortured, restrained (and) strapped like animals’ on a regular basis. They also drew attention to a case of attempted suicide by a detainee in July this year.
The detainees statement asserted, “There is no justification whatsoever for detaining us for such period of time. Our lives incidentally have been stalled without any hope of living a life, having a family or any future...We the detainees are also humans.”
The Home Office has rejected claims that any mistreatment takes place at the centre, which is run by private company the GEO Group Ltd on behalf of the UK Borders Agency, and have refused to comment on the attempted suicide. In statements to the press the UKBA have, typically, tried to downplay the strike by making the assertion that the detainees may have refused meals but still have access to food from an on-site shop and vending machines. The six week hunger strike of the women at Yarl’s Wood has also never been officially recognised by the Home Office. If they find understanding the concept of ‘hunger strike’ so challenging, perhaps its no surprise that the European Convention on Human Rights appears to fly right over their heads...
