Child abuse by Border Agency

While the detention of children is finally condemned, the detention of mothers and its impact on children and families is ignored. A meeting in Parliament this Thursday will hear from women, including rape survivors, who were detained in brutal conditions. Some were detained with their children, others had their children taken from them and now face deportation and permanent separation.

One woman, persecuted in Gambia for refusing to inflict genital mutilation on her daughters, then sentenced to death by stoning for a lesbian relationship, was detained on arrival in the UK. Her claim was "fast-tracked" leaving her no time to gather corroborating evidence, and was refused. Our intervention helped get her released. Others treated similarly are sent back to possible death.

As the election approaches, will any political party earn the votes of those who support asylum seekers? Will women MPs finally speak up for mothers and rape victims?

Maria Kasaga

All African Women's Group

Cristel Amiss

Black Women's Rape Action Project
Niki Adams

Legal Action for Women

London, NW5

(Original version)

While the detention of children is finally condemned, the detention of mothers and its impact on children and families is ignored.  (Detaining Children in Britain: no place for the innocent 12 Jan 2010)  A meeting in Parliament this Thursday will hear from women, including rape survivors, who were detained in brutal conditions.  Some with their children, others had their children taken from them and now face deportation and permanent separation. 

One woman, persecuted in Gambia for refusing to inflict genital mutilation on her daughters, then sentenced to death by stoning for a lesbian relationship, was detained on arrival in the UK.  Her claim was “Fast Tracked” leaving her no time to gather corroborating evidence, and refused.  Our intervention helped get her released after her lawyer dropped her case.  Others treated similarly are sent back to possible death. 

Women will describe hunger strikes and other protests against uncaring and racist guards, lack of health care, wheelchair users trapped in their room without food, sabotage of family visits and calls, and violence during removals.

Politicians claim, without any concrete evidence, that the public blames immigrants for a scarcity of resources – on this both Conservative and Labour seem in agreement with the BNP.  In our experience, what makes people angry is money squandered on war and bankers while the vulnerable get no help. 

Women asylum seekers are demanding an end to: the Fast Track, the detention of vulnerable people, and the deliberate policy of destitution and family break up.  As the election approaches, will any political party earn the votes of those who support asylum seekers?  Will women MPs finally speak up for mothers and rape victims?

Can you Hear Us?
Women’s uncensored experiences of detention & deportation
14 January 2010, House of Commons

Photos from the meeting
report follows soon.

Bedfordshire on Sunday > News > 17 January 2010
Women asylum seekers tell tales
of horror

BY KEELEY KNOWLES

Women spoke about their struggles against the immigration system at a meeting in Parliament this week.

Yarl's Wood

The group included rape survivors, mothers separated from their children and those who have recently been released from Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, near Clapham.

Idri Jawara was one of the speakers at the meeting in the House of Commons on Thursday.

She was detained at Yarl’s Wood after fleeing to Britain from Gambia when her husband found out she began a lesbian relationship with a close friend and raped and beat her.

Mrs Jawara was eventually taken to a Sharia court where her husband accused her of having a forbidden relationship and she was sentenced to death by stoning in May 2009.

She ended up at Yarl’s Wood although campaigners said she was entitled to claim asylum under the Refugee Convention.

Despite having explained she was a victim of rape, her appeal was put into the fasttrack process and was turned down.

Her removal was suspended after the Gambian authorities refused to issue a travel document and she was finally released shortly before Christmas.

The meeting was held on the same evening as the play Motherland which was performed in the Bedford Civic Theatre.

Award-winning actress Juliet Stevenson spoke of the experiences endured by some of the women she met at Yarl’s Wood in 2007.

A spokesman for the Black Women’s Rape Action Project which helps campaign for asylum seekers said: “While the brutal detention of children has been finally condemned, little has been said about the detention of mothers and its impact on families, including children, and other vulnerable people.

“More than 70 per cent of women seeking asylum are rape survivors.

“Many are detained in prison-like conditions throughout Britain, including in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre which holds over 400 women and their families.

“This is in breach of national guidelines and international agreements.”