No More Detention Centres: Resisting the expansion of the detention estate

The Home Office has recently announced plans to reopen Campsfield House and Haslar as Immigration Removal Centres, increasing the number of people that can be detained at any given time by 33%, at a cost of £399 million to the taxpayer.

This expansion of the detention estate undoes years of progress in reducing the number of people in detention and lays the foundation for untold suffering and misery.

These plans are part of an alarming trend of regressive and inhumane legislation which criminalises asylum seekers and migrants and substantially increase the numbers of detainable and deportable people. Increasing detention capacity is part of the infrastructure required to enact the Government’s inhumane plans to remove people seeking asylum to Rwanda and it must be stopped.

BID have long campaigned to end immigration detention in the UK. Having supported over 50,000 to apply for immigration bail, we know there is no way to humanely detain people under immigration powers. While we have witnessed an onslaught of attacks on human rights in 2022, we have also seen a growing movement of people who resist.

This event will bring together several voices to discuss how we can come together to resist the expansion of immigration detention and move towards a world in which no one is deprived of their liberty for immigration purposes or deported from their home.

Panel chair:

• Writer and campaigner Gracie Mae Bradley will chair the panel. She has a decade’s experience working in NGOs in England, including as Director of the civil liberties group Liberty, as well as being part of many grassroots campaigns. She is co-author of Against Borders (Verso, 2022).

Speakers:

• Kolbassia Haoussou MBE, Director of Survivor Empowerment at Freedom from Torture who will be speaking about their successful campaigning work targeting airlines removing asylum seekers to Rwanda as well as broader campaigning against Hostile Environment Policies.

• Jacqueline McKenzie, partner and head of immigration and asylum law at Leigh Day Solicitors with whom BID is working on a legal challenge against Manston. Drawing on her vast experience, including representing hundreds of people affected by the Windrush Scandal, she will be discussing how we can hold the government to account in court.

• Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West who joined local campaigners in successfully closing an Immigration Removal Centre in Oxford in 2018, and is currently fighting government proposals to re-open it.

• Bill MacKeith, from the Keep Campsfield Closed Coalition, will be discussing insight gleaned from over 30 years of campaigning to close Campsfield House Detention Centre and now to keep it closed.

• Pierre Makhlouf, Legal Director at Bail for Immigration Detainees, will be discussing trends in Immigration Detention Policy, the case against immigration detention and BID’s work to end it.

Please note that there is a suggested donation of £5 for this talk and every penny raised will go towards our work providing free legal advice to people detained under immigration powers. If you do not wish to donate at this time you are still most welcome to attend.

If you have any accessibility requirements for this event please include these when prompted at the time of booking.

REGISTER HERE!