Activists show their solidarity with the hunger strikers Photo: Frances Laing
Hunger strikes at Yarl’s Wood
Symon Hill reports on conditions at Yarl's Wood detention centre
Demands are growing for an urgent inquiry into conditions at the Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. A hunger strike by women detainees has drawn attention to allegations of mistreatment. At least twenty women are thought to be refusing food at present. The Labour MP John McDonnell has demanded an inquiry into allegations of violence, mistreatment and racial abuse. Yarl’s Wood, which is a holding centre for migrants entering Britain, has long attracted criticism from human rights groups and pro-immigration campaigners.
A spokesperson for the centre claimed that: ‘All detainees are treated with dignity and respect, with access to legal advice and healthcare facilities’.
But McDonnell says that a group of women were last month held in a hallway for five hours without access to toilet facilities or water. The Black Women’s Rape Action Project said that four of the women fainted during this incident.
Shaunice Bignall, twenty-six, told Quaker journalist Frances Laing that the hunger strike started ‘on the basis of how long they are keeping us and how they are treating us here’.
As an example, she said, ‘We were given white chicken with feathers on it; blood coming out of it. They put the thermostat into the chicken and told us to eat it because it was cooked’.
She added: ‘Then there is the way they take people away on flights. Male officers pull them on to the floor. They are powerless’.
Only days after the hunger strike began on 5 February, a report by the Children’s Commissioner criticised the treatment of children held at the centre.
In response, Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) added its name to a letter calling for an end to the practice of keeping children in detention.
The hunger strikers are now appealing for an independent inquiry into conditions at the centre. MPs from several parties have signed an Early Day Motion (a parliamentary petition), urging a halt to deportations while an inquiry takes place. They say that the centre flouts both international conventions and UK immigration rules.
In addition, lawyers for four of the women announced this week that they are launching a court case against the government over the legality of the women’s treatment.
‘The government has built in legislation, rules and regulations which have made this [situation] possible,’ said Christel Amiss of the Black Women’s Rape Action Centre.
She said that the treatment of women in Yarl’s Wood is ‘against the United Nations conventions that are meant to protect victims of torture because it is quite clear that what they have introduced is a process to remove people not to give protection and safety to people’.
