Bill MacKeith and Veronica Fagan In the past month there have been two group hunger strikes at Haslar immigration prison near Portsmouth. Home Office doublespeak refers to it as a "removal centre", even though most detainees at Haslar and other such centres have not even received an initial reply to their legitimate claim for asylum, or are conducting an appeal against a refusal by the Home Office. Haslar is one of five "removal centres" visited by the Inspectorate of Prisons a year ago. Chief Inspector Anne Owers' report has only just been published, despite being completed months ago. It sat on the Home Secretary's desk for months. Perhaps this was because the report criticised all the centres, Haslar particularly severely. In January this year Mikhail Bodnarchuk, a Ukrainian, hanged himself at Haslar on the day he was due to be deported after his asylum application was rejected.
Some of the issues detainees were complaining about through their hunger strikes were:
• Bad food, and often not properly cooked
No adequate medical service
• Detainees not kept updated on the progress of their cases
• Poor quality or broken hygienic equipment
Poor canteen facilities
• Only 50p a day pocket money
Being in Hasiar is like being in prison. Staff are rude and rarely assist detainees with access to Home Office immigration officials on site.
And its not only Haslar where there are problems. On April 27, an Algerian detainee tried to hang himself at Lindholme immigration prison near Doncaster. He was saved by his room mate, who found him hanging and cut him What you can do: Detainees at Haslar are asking people to write to the Governor, Mel Jones, and ask him to address the issues raised by the detainees and send a copy to the Home Secretary.
Governor: Mel Jones
Haslar Immigration Removal Centre
2 Dolphin Way, Gosport
Hants PO12 2AW
Fax 02392 604001 down. In the run-up to the mass protest at Yarl's Wood in February last year there had been many individual and group protests against conditions there, about how asylum applications were dealt with, and against detention. Some of these are detailed in Gabriel Nkwelle's statements, reprinted in Voices From Detention (see page 12). Home Secretary David Blunkett / Home Office 50 Queen Annes Gate London SW1H 9AT • For further information about Hasiar in particular contact: Brighton No Borders group: [email protected] • For further information about immigration detention contact: Barbed Wire Britain: www.barbedwirebritain.co.uk
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12 soclalist resistance June 2003 wwww.arveswirebritain.org.uk