Despair and anger as the Illegal Migration Bill is passed

On the evening of Monday 17th July, the House of Commons used its huge Tory majority to  consent to a cruel experiment – because that’s what the Illegal Migration Bill is. With no evidence to back up the Home Secretary’s insistence that the measures are bound to work, we know the UK is set on a course of despair, however the Home Office cares to spin it. The bill will soon become law.

Detention  harms us all

Two days previously,  our monthly demonstration heard about the conditions in Derwentside IRC that had prompted its Independent Monitoring Board to recommend the Minister for Immigration, Robert Jenrick, to ‘reconsider the suitability of Derwentside as an immigration removal centre’. You can read the report  here

N2H member Debbie spoke powerfully about the damage of detention, and of the women seeking asylum that she had met on the other side of the Channel – no different from the women locked up beyond the IRC barrier behind her.

“Every single one of those women deserves a better life, and I wish I could walk amongst  them in the streets together as friends, and ask them about their lives and their children as they would mine, in a decent world.”

Speaking out to the media

In our press release  today Dr Helen Groom, our chair said:

“The No To Hassockfield campaign stands in solidarity with people fleeing conflict, violence and unsustainable lives who find themselves at the mercy of people smugglers, forced to take desperate measures due to a failure of European migration policy. Many of those who end up in detention prisons such as the Derwentside IRC at Hassockfield will have similarly risked their lives only to be locked up and subject to further state-induced trauma. We call for safe and legal routes now for all those seeking sanctuary in the UK and across Europe and for an end to the cruel practice of detention.”