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[ 22. Sep 2012 ]

Movement for Justice group forms inside Yarl's Wood detenion centre

Movement for Justice March, March 30, 2011

Despite the repression suffered by Yarl's Wood detainees who've dared protest in the past, a group of women currently detained in the centre have formed a Movement for Justice group. They came together and issued the following statement.

 

Led by a group of lesbian women in detention, the Yarls Wood Movement for Justice group has now grown to include many more women both lesbian and straight; all are determined to fight for their freedom and the freedom of all women in detention; an end to the racist and abusive system of detaining people who have committed no crime other than seek a life free from torture, persecution, abuse and poverty and the freedom to study, live, work and be exactly who they are.

Together the Yarls Wood Movement for Justice Group has voted on a set of demands for immediate improvement in the conditions of detention (cleaning work that only pays 50p an hour*, blocks on the internet and lack of printing facilities) and the overarching goal of freedom for all and an end to detention.

1. Respect for our human rights - Release us now
2. No more Fast Track
3. Unblock the internet & allow internet access to our petition link and printing of petition materials
4. Pay us at least the minimum wage for the work we do in detention
5. No more copy & paste of case decisions - we need fair trial
6. No more charter flights
7. End deportation - End detention
8. We need freedom - legal status for us all in the UK

The entire immigration system is racist, homophobic, sexist and rotten to the core. The collective organisation of detainees in detention combined with a militant and determined fight in all of our communities across the UK can be the death knell of this poisonous system that has robbed from us so many of our sisters, brothers, neigbour's, cousins, fathers, mothers, workmates and friends. This pernicious effect has been highlighted dramatically with the threatened deportation of almost 3000 students from London Met University - the time to fight is now; student and non student, detained and not detained, citizen and non-citizen, International student and UK student - we must stand together for a new Britain, a better Britain: diverse, multiracial, integrated and equal.



* For more information on how torture survivors are being used as slave labour inside Yarlwood, see this leaked job description in which Serco offer the attractive £1.50-per-day wages for detainees to maintain the very prison which incarcerates them :: stopdeportations.wordpress.com

Source :: indymedia.org.uk, 16. Sep 2012. (For more about the Movement for Justice network, see :: movementforjustice.org)