Birmingham NoBorders organised a 50-seat coach to Harmondsworth. The coach set off just after 8am, with about 30 people on board, including 2 kids. They were armed with leaflets and banners, pots and pans for making noise, and a guitar. Birmingham Food Not Bombs brought some nice vegan food and cookies. A few asylum seekers were also among them.

Upon arriving at Harmondsworth, the coach was not allowed to go to the initial starting point of the demo and was redirected and led by a police van. Some cops even assaulted one of the NoBorders activists when he tried to talk to them and forced him back on the coach. Eventually, the coach was parked away from the detention centre and people had to walk on the highway to get there.

The Rhythms of Resistance samba band were already playing. A number of former detainees, from various countries, then said a few words about their own experiences in detention through a small PA system, while everyone else, including the police, listened intently. One of them was Ali Rahimi from Wolverhampton and the Birmingham Anti Racist Campaign.

Before the demo, both Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres announced that visiting hours were to be shortened. According to the police, the detainees were "upset and afraid" during the previous demo, claiming that they did not understand it was for their benefit. There were also concerns for the "safety of visitors", who "might get caught up in the demonstration or feel threatened."

The demonstration itself was prevented from taking place as planned, in a line of sight with the windows of the detention centre. Demonstrators had to converge at the gates of Harmondsworth, where they could not be seen by detainees. The reason given was concern for local residents (in a row of houses next to a loud dual carriageway!), who, according to the police, complained about the noise after the previous demo.

At the same time, security guards inside both detention centres prevented detainees from going outside the building or near the windows where they could see the demo. Some were forced back into their cells violently. In protest, some detainees have gone on hunger strike, starting from lunch time on that day.

About 40 people, however, managed to make their way around the side of Colnbrook where detainees could see and hear them from the windows, and they spent a long time communicating with people inside, before being moved on by police.

Around 100 yards down the road from the main demo at the entrance, a group of about 30-40 protesters were penned by the police, where some scuffles took place. A NUJ journalist was stopped from filming and assaulted by the police and dragged into the cordon. He showed his press card but the Metropolitan police (who have, only a couple of months ago, been issued with guidelines on respecting the freedom of the press) said that the card could be faked but did not check the pin number. He was detained for about 20 minutes until another journalist complained. The protesters in the cordon were eventually released but only after they have given their personal details. One of them was arrested for refusing to do that, but was later de-arrested after he gave his name and address.

Having given up on moving it to the fields, where it could be seen and heard by inmates (the police did not allow people to leave the pen as a group), the demonstration was coming to an end at around 2:30pm. Coaches, parked faraway, arrived one by one and demonstrators were "escorted" to their seats. Even after the coaches had moved, they were followed by police vans for quite a while.