UK: Detainees put in solitary after protesting against conditions at immigration centre
A London immigration detention centre held an estimated 40 detainees in solitary confinement after they protested against poor conditions causing a "risk to life" at the facility.
The campaign group SOAS Detainee Support (SDS) and a detainee told Middle East Eye the protesters were "violently" rounded up by security officers after the demonstration, which took place in the courtyard of the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre on 25 June.
The detainees were calling for an end to harsh treatment they face from staff at the centre, including limited access to healthcare and being held in soaring cell temperatures.
A detainee with the first inital A, who took part in the protest and is now in solitary confinement, told MEE that people in the centre were left "without food or water" in "very hot" conditions.
He and another detainee said they were taunted by the detention staff throughout the protest, with one officer swilling water and spitting it out in front of the parched protesters.
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"We needed that water," A told MEE in a phone interview.
The protesters then broke into the kitchen to find something to eat and drink before police brought in dogs to disperse the crowds and rounded up the participants, placing them in isolation.
"It was pretty violent," said Margot Chesne, coordinator of SDS.
"We were on the phone with someone on the inside for about two hours while the guards with dogs hunted down the leftovers of the protest," she told MEE.
According to SDS, those at risk of self-harm were stripped naked after the protest, with many of the detainees being denied food and water.
Four detainees in isolation attempted suicide, with one attempting self-immolation, the campaign group reported.
Many of the protesters have been threatened with prison for their participation in the demonstration.
"We are distressed and appalled by these conditions, and worry for the lives and safety of those inside the centres," SDS said in a joint open letter sent to Home Secretary Suella Braverman on 30 June.
MEE understands that since then most of those who took part in the protest are out of isolation and into general detention, or transferred to different detention centres.
Harsh conditions
The 25 June protest was against what some detainees described as a "human rights crisis" at the centre.
They cite denial of adequate healthcare, poor ventilation and lack of good-quality food, among other alleged violations.
Chesne told MEE that staff are giving sick detainees mild pain-relief paracetamol for "absolutely everything", including "cardiac conditions, brain injuries, self-harm".
The night before the protest erupted, staff refused to allow paramedics to enter the centre after a man attempted to hang himself, Chesne said.
"[It] means he [didn't] get medical attention when he was stopped from [the] suicide attempt. He then told us that he was given paracetamol for his injuries related to his attempt," she said.
After the death of Colombian detainee Frank Ospina in Colnbrook, the detention centre adjoining Harmondsworth, there were a number of suicide attempts.
A detainee in solitary confinement told MEE that a doctor had deemed him "unsuitable" for detention, yet he remains at the centre.
'We can't breathe because we don't have windows'
- Detainee at UK immigration detention centre
Cells are also poorly ventilated and face overheating amid soaring temperatures, with weak fans working for only 40 seconds at a time.
"We can't breathe because we don’t have windows," A said.
"I woke up last night and told them, 'Please open the door... for just two minutes. I don't have oxygen.' The officer said to me: 'Well, how are the others breathing?'"
Detainees also complain about lack of good food options, with only chicken-and-chips meals provided, which are at times withheld as a form of punishment.
"They're being given this poor-quality food... and it's the same thing all the time," Chesne told MEE.
"Sometimes they're denied it. Sometimes there are reasons for it, and sometimes it's random. The repression that occurs in a detention centre is very sporadic."
With capacity for 676 adult male detainees, the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre is the largest detention facility in the UK and Europe.
Indefinite detention
A said he had been repeatedly thrown into solitary for voicing his concerns.
He recalled having meals withheld when he complained, being stripped naked and put in confinement.
"They put you in there like a dog, they give you only one blanket. They left me there naked," the 36-year-old said.
He has been in detention for nine months - first at Colnbrook, then at Harmondsworth.
'People are just waiting and rotting away in these detention centres while the Home Office is trying to find a reason to deport them'
- Margot Chesne, coordinator of SDS
Like many others, he does not know how much longer he will stay there. The Home Office's backlog of asylum claims is trapping many like him in indefinite detention.
"People are just waiting and rotting away in these detention centres while the Home Office is trying to find a reason to deport them," Chesne said.
A recent report by Liberty Investigates and the Mirror revealed the widespread use of violence by immigration custody staff.
Many of the cases named in the report were employees of Mitie, the private company contracted by the Home Office to run Harmondsworth.
In response to SDS's open letter addressed to Braverman and Mitie, the company stated that the allegations "are not claims we recognise" and that "Mitie does not set immigration detention policy".
The Home Office did not respond to MEE's queries by the time of publication.
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