Can you hear us? Women's uncensored experiences of detention and deportation
Thurs 14 January, 6:00 t0 8:00pm
Committee Room 5
House of Commons, Westminster
Speakers include:
Paulina B - won a precedent setting case & compensation for illegal detention,
Fatma K - centrally involved in a Yarl's Wood hunger strike which led to over a dozen rape survivors being released,
Celina M - witnessed the sprucing up of Yarl's Wood in preparation for VIP visits,
Jalia S - detained with her two small children - interviewed by TV on release.
Plus taped interviews with women currently detained or illegally deported.
Over 70% of women seeking asylum are rape survivors.[1] Over 400 women and their families are currently detained at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre[2]. Many are detained in other Centres throughout Britain. While the brutal detention of children is finally widely condemned, there is still little said about the detention of mothers and the impact of this on families, including children, as well as on other vulnerable people.
Come hear how despite being: isolated, denied access to dependable lawyers, subjected to slave labour and negligent healthcare, abused and assaulted during deportations, and terrorised by the threat of being sent back . . . women continue to organise creatively in defence of themselves and their children.
Organised by:
All African Women's Group,
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Black Women's Rape Action Project,
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Crossroads Women's Centre, T: 020 7482 2496 F: 020 7209 4761
Sponsoring organisations: Legal Action for Women, Women Against Rape, SOAS Visitors group & Yarl's Wood Befrienders.
What you can do:
On 14 January: help send a flood of emails, twitters, faxes, letters & phone calls to those responsible for instigating, operating, profiteering from & collaborating with detention.
We demand:
1. The abolition of the Fast Track system for asylum applications which denies victims of torture, especially rape survivors, access to reliable legal representation and the time and resources they need to fully present their case to the authorities.
2. Restoration of full legal aid and access to independent legal advice for everyone who is detained.
3. An end to the detention of children and their mothers, rape survivors, other victims of torture and all sick and vulnerable people.
4.Everyone in detention to have access to support from outside, appropriate medical treatment and care, edible food, working pagers and mobile phone connectivity.
5. An end to the separation of mothers from their children, whether because they are in detention or because of destitution
6. Women convicted of crimes of poverty such as working without papers, or using false documents to get into the UK, should not be penalised again by being deprived of their immigration status.
7. Independent investigation of claims that removal centre staff are sexist racist, violent, brutal and rude or deliberately sabotage women's efforts to get help or pursue their legal case. If found guilty of any of these, staff must be sacked.
Model letters will be available on the day on the AAWG website,
http://www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20Immigrant/AAWGpage.htm
§ Please contact us if you would like to support one of the women inside by letters & phone calls.
§ Pass this leaflet onto others.
§ Contact us if you would like to sponsor this event.
§ Write to your MP and the local and national press with any injustices you hear about - follow up by phone.
Please sign our Asylum from Rape Petition
for the official recognition of rape as torture and persecution
[1] A Bleak House in Our Times: An investigation into women's rights violations at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre, Legal Action for Women
[2] Home Office figures
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