In a week when the House of Lords has condemned the government’s Illegal Migration Bill over and over for its callous policies ( Lords amend the Boats Bill ) we now also have a similarly damning verdict on the Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre.
‘We consider that the location of Derwentside, plus the inadequate communications
infrastructure, is unsuitable and leads to treatment of detained women that is in
some respects inhumane, and is in any event unequal and unfair compared with the
treatment of detained men.’
This is the assessment of the Home Office appointed Independent Monitoring Board in its annual report. It’s among a raft of statements about the facility that echo what we have been saying in our campaign ever since the IRC began life as Hassockfield IRC. Read it for yourself here
Vindication does not being with it satisfaction though. There are no plans to close the IRC and the new regime under Serco may even worsen lives for the women brought to the centre.
What’s also plain is that justice is hard to get when those judging are far removed from the IRC’s reality. The IMB specifically identified communication problems that were completely ignored in a ruling today against an asylum seeker in Derwentside who fought long and hard for her right to remain. She has now been deported…. Read the full story here.
So we fight on!
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