Approximately 30,000 immigrants and asylum seekers are locked up in detention centres and prisons in Britain every year, including over 2000 children and babies. About 400 are deported from Britain every week, including children and babies. Since 2001 alone, as racist immigration legislation has got increasingly vicious, there have been 41 suicides of asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers - 17 in detention centres and prisons. The Institute of Race Relations, in September 2006 catalogued the deaths of 221 asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers in Britain in the 17 years since 1989.

Dallas Court: Place of Fear

Dallas Court reporting centre, short-term 'holding' centre, 'enforcement' centre, etc. ‘holds’ those who come to report to immigration officers, or who have been abducted by snatch squads in so-called ‘enforcement operations’. From here they are transfered against their will, essentially kidnapped, to detention centres such as Yarl's Wood prison or 'immigration removal centre' (IRC) in Bedfordshire. Dallas Court kidnapping centre is one of a maze of prisons for asylum seekers - vulnerable people who have committed no crime, and many fleeing torture, rape and other forms of repression. In these ‘detention' centres, immigrants are abused - verbally, racially, physically and sexually on a regular, systemic basis. Recent reports by UNHCR, the Medical Foundation, the chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers and the BBC have only scratched the surface of the degrading, humiliating and racist treatment, the barely hidden torture, of asylum seekers and immigrants. Reports of abuse reaching solicitors are received every day. Most brutality goes unreported and unpunished, as the victims are either removed to other detention centres before they can be visited and evidence collected, or are simply deported. Some have ended up reportedly raped and tortured further.


Dallas Court, represents nothing more than British state racism. Asylum seekers are forced to travel from as far away as Stoke and Northwich to 'report' or sign on, some once a month, some EVERY DAY. Transport can't be paid for out of their measly £35-40/week electronic vouchers, hence many have to walk miles. At Dallas Court, they are treated as if they were animals, frequently told by staff that they should 'go back to [your] countries' such as war-torn Sudan, Iraq, DR Congo, Afghanistan or Nigeria, from where they had been forced to flee. All reportees, including mothers and pregnant women are made to stand outside, with no seats or shelter from the sun or rain, whilst waiting to 'report'. Every time asylum seekers come to 'report', they run the risk of being kidnapped and sent to detention centres, such as Yarl's Wood IRC, before being forcibly deported. This is NOT a random occurrence, but a daily event.


Hence asylum seekers are petrified of Dallas Court, and some have panic attacks as they approach the place. This blatantly racist treatment of asylum seekers, by this Labour government is an affront to humanity. Especially when we remind ourselves that Britain is responsible for the wars, conflict and poverty that these people are fleeing in the first place, through its imperialist wars and exploitation of the oppressed countries especially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. NWASDG demands an end to kidnappings at Dallas Court, and calls for reporting centres such as Dallas Court to be closed down!