Skip to content or view screen version

Letter from Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre

Colnbrook Detainees | 06.06.2006 08:44 | Anti-racism | Migration | Repression | London

Detainees in Colnbrook IRC have published a letter to News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood.

Dear Mr. Mahmood,
We, the detainees of Colnbrook Detention Centre think that you are a gutless, incompetent, bully, and together with your editors and newspapers pick on foreigners because they are a soft target. You do not represent the real views of the common UK nationals, but rather, you have been misleading the general public with your unfair, ill-informed news partial news for years. You have influenced the way this government perceives it should deal with refugees and asylum, by presenting it as incompetent, to make it adopt inhuman policies against people who have fled their countries of origin for one reason or another. This has led to refugees not seeking asylum with the authorities, for fear of being detained and removed to countries where their lives would be in danger. This has in turn pushed those refugees to provide for their survival by being exploited to work long hours for very low pay (such as the ones you helped catch), for those very fears.

From your name, I can tell that you are a descendant of immigrants. In your quest to further your career, to please your bosses, to embarrass the government, and for whatever other selfish motives you may have in taking advantage of foreigners in the UK, we wonder how you sleep at night. You should reconsider your position by educating yourself on refugees, asylum seekers and immigrant' issues before you unfairly target them. You should go back to your roots and stop thinking that you are better than any other foreigners just because you hold British citizenship.

Well done for doing none of your business, and encouraging vigilantism. You would be very much at home with BNP and Migrant Watch, Mr. Mazher Mahmood (News of the World) for your Nazi-like work of spreading hate and kidnapping people to detention centres ( UK concentration camps). Print this in your hate paper if you have the spine!

We recommend you enlighten your ignorant self by reading the UNHCR's 'Victims of Intolerance'.
 http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PUBL&id=44508b222

Yours sincerely,
Colnbrook Detainees

Message of support/solidarity can be sent to:
 colnbrook.detainees@googlemail.com

PS: We the detainees are delighted that London No Borders/No One is Illegal, have called a picket of the 'News of the World this Sunday. We would ask anyone reading this message who can attend the picket to be there for us.

Demonstrate outside the 'News of the World'/Sunday - 11th June
 http://www.ncadc.org.uk/newszine71/newsdemo.html

Colnbrook Detainees