At 9am on Tuesday April 1st about 300 detainees went into the exercise yard in Kalyx-run Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow, protesting against their administrative detention and poor conditions in the centre. They also wrote and signed a petition and sent it to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Wednesday the protest continues with over 100 detainees refusing food. The detainees complain that they are being deported without having their cases properly heard, due to time restrictions and bad legal representation, and that they are detained in the meantime, in very bad conditions, without having committed any crime. A detainee told No Borders London: "The food is disgusting. The medical facilities are appalling.....It is mental torture, people are going mad". A Refugee from Sierra Leone stated: "'We are tired of inhumane treatment. The protest started yesterday and is going to continue. It is a peaceful protest in the courtyard. "
On Saturday 5th, at 6.30 in the morning, police in riot uniform entered the detention centre and removed about 30 detainees according to witnesses. Their whereabouts are unknown so far.
The protest is the latest in a long line of protests at Harmondsworth and the UK's nine other immigration removal centres.
Detainees' Petition | Statements from Detainees | Harmondsworth revolt November 2006: 1 2 3 | Harmondsworth Trials (2008) | Hungerstrike July 2007
Sunday, April 06, 2008
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The hunger strike is still on.
from indymedia uk: 08.04.2008
Although the majority of detainees in Harmondsworth have resumed eating after the repression, some are still not eating. I just spoke to one who has not eaten for 5 days now. He says there are others. The detainee we spoke to who was moved out Harmondsworth and is injuried has not eaten since last Tuesday. The detention management will have now to record who is not eating and release information (for the first 3 days they don't have to).
John Mc Donnell MP has done representations on behalf of the detainees, asking above other things that nobody is deported until allegations of assaults are investigated. He has also written a letter of complaint at the way the detainees have been treated.
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