Detention centres are secretive places. By going on strike, the women of Yarl's Wood are forcing the world to hear their voices
by Samantha Hudson / March 1, 2018 / Leave a comment
The women of Yarl’s Wood are fighting to have their voices heard. Photo: PA
In the same month that we celebrated the centenary of (some) women’s suffrage in the UK, 120 women went on strike in Yarl’s Wood detention centre to protest their lack of human rights. Their protest begs the question: how far have women really come?
Each year over 1500 women who have sought asylum in the UK are detained. At Women for Refugee Women, we regularly visit those locked up in Yarl’s Wood, the infamous detention centre that has been the site of numerous scandals and in 2015 was called a place of ‘national concern’ by the Prisons Inspectorate.
Most of the women detained there are survivors of rape, torture and other abuse. The UK is the only country in Europe with no time limit on detention. Being locked up, with no end in sight, has disastrous consequences on vulnerable women’s wellbeing.
88 per cent of women we spoke to for our latest research said that their mental health had deteriorated in detention; almost half had thought about killing themselves.
The Home Office repeatedly insists that detention is a last resort before a person is deported. This is simply not true, as is evident in the Home Office’s own statistics.
In 2016, just 15 per cent of asylum-seeking women detained at Yarl’s Wood left detention to be removed from the UK…
You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don’t worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.
When you register we’ll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we’ll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time
Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information.
Click to learn more about these interests and how we use your data. You will be able to object to this processing on the next page and in all our communications.
