Is Inhumanity now Acceptable in UK politics?

On 15th November, for the 51st month in a row, human rights campaigners peacefully gathered at the gates of Derwentside Women’s Immigration Removal Centre, in order to draw attention to the ongoing cruel practice of detention. The campaigners stood in solidarity with the women imprisoned inside the centre, so they knew they were not alone or abandoned. A van transfering a detainee was itself detained at the gates due to our protest. But the police, having been called, found no reason to take any action, as we are still succeeding in making our presence felt within the constraints of the law.

Their action also acted as a reminder to the local community and passers-by that Derwentside IRC cannot be ignored, despite its remote rural location.  Our presence is a constant reminder to the UK government that Derwentside IRC should be closed as it is cruel, unnecessary, costly and isolating.

At the centre of this photograph is Fatou, a woman  we supported through her struggle to leave detention in Derwentside and then Yarl’s Wood IRCs. Now back in her community – like Arjeta, whose story is told below – she gives a human face to the impersonal numbers driven rhetoric of the Home Office.

                                                                                                                                 Photo credit: Simone Rudolphi Photography

This month, following the publication of a long awaited report Investigation into historical abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre , it’s timely to remember that the history of the site as the former Medomsley Detention Centre  campaigners will also draw attention to the prolific physical and sexual abuse that occurred at the centre between 1961 and 1987 and the way knowledge of the abuse was ignored and dismissed by the the police, the Home Office and other organisations of authority.

Dr Helen Groom from No To Hassockfield said:

“Many of the current campaigners became involved prior to the site re-opening, because of their knowledge of the horrendous historical abuse that had occurred. In 2019 local planning permission had been obtained to bulldoze the site to make way for houses and a pocket park. However, following the 2019 election which gave the Conservative government a huge majority, these plans were halted and the decision was made to spend millions turning the site into a Category 3 type prison.

Whilst the site’s current function as Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre for women is different and run by private company, SERCO, under a completely different operational code, what hasn’t changed is that a system of abuse “…took advantage of the isolated location of Medomsley, as the journey to the centre was ‘across many miles of bleak and barren moorland’, which would have ‘compounded in the minds of the trainees’ how hopeless escape was”. We have always believed that the site should not have been repurposed as a prison and must be closed.

Communicating over the Wall

Last month, on 18th October 2025, large crowds gathered outside Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre in a powerful display of solidarity with migrant communities.  The campaigners called for the release of the women trapped inside, demanding a new and positive approach to immigration and an end to the traumatic, unnecessary and costly practice of immigration detention.

Participants at last month’s national demonstration heard directly from Arjeta, a trafficking survivor who spoke whilst still imprisoned inside Derwentside IRC. The sudden detention of Arjeta a few weeks earlier, who had been rebuilding her life and supporting other women in Liverpool, demonstrates how the terror of detention affects whole communities, and prevents trauma survivors from moving forward. Whilst Arjeta is no longer in immigration detention she still lives with the uncertainty of not yet having secured fixed immigration status.