Demonstrate at Yarl's Wood, near Bedford, Saturday 21st of March 2009
 http://london.noborders.org.uk/yarlswood2009

Watch the video:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7931126.stm

We are against immigration detention full stop, but for children detention is particularily bad. According to Medical Justice doctors, all children in detention 'stop thriving', that is they stop putting up weight.
For many months now the children and babies in Yarl's Wood have been getting sick with vomiting and diaorrhea. They also develop all sorts of emotional and mental problems, including suicidal thoughts and entering in suicide pacts with other children. And often children have to look after their parents, who have in turn developed depression, PTSD sympthoms and suicidal tendencies. A 12 years old saved his mother's life as she was about to hang herself with her bedsheets.
B. was detained at Yarl's Wood and deported with three of her four children. After deportation she was arrested, raped and tortured. Her children, one of whom disabled, were separated from her, put into care and were severely traumatised as a result. B. managed to escape and returned to the UK, her back covered in wounds for the beatings she received. Later she was given refugee status and was reunited with her children.
Who knows how many children and their mothers were injuried or worst, but were never able to return.

''A cumulative outbreak of 'Chicken pox' forced UKBA/Serco to close the family unit to new admissions last Saturday. The first infection was reported on or around 6th February, when one family was quarantined, the quarantine of the first family obviously failed to halt the spread of the infection as by the 1st of March four more family's had been put into isolation.
Visits to the family unit are being restricted to just two hours a day for all visits''. (from NCADC, National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns)


“The children were sick in detention. My daughter Sylvie said she was going to kill herself in there. She was crying all the time...She would be sucking her fingers and saying ‘I’m going to kill myself’” .

''The UK is the only EU country to indefinitely detain children.
At Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, children have been referred to by staff as “child male” and “child female”.
The charity Bail for Immigration Detainees published a report in May 2005 on the cases of 13 adults and 3 children who had been held in immigration detention for between 40 and 720 days (an average of 250 days).
A 13 yr old boy, detained together with his father (Manuel Bravo), was released after his father killed himself within hours of being taken to Yarl’s Wood.
The UK government currently detains more than 2,000 children, including babies, in immigration detention centres every year. One child was held for 268 days.''
'Fit to be Detained? Challenging the detention of asylum seekers and migrants with health needs' by BID, including a report by Médicins Sans Frontières
http:// www.bid.org.uk


For more information:
http:// www.medicaljustice.org.uk