PRESS RELEASE — 10 MAY 2024

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Yesterday we received reports of a hunger strike in Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre. It appears that dozens of detainees are refusing food to draw attention to the human impact of the Home Office’s inhumane Rwanda plans.

Last week, these individuals contacted us asking for help after they were suddenly arrested and detained in Colnbrook IRC, often with no access to their immigration papers or legal representatives. Life Seekers Aid does not know how many other detention centres are being used to house such individuals, or what the conditions in those centres may be.

Make no mistake, these are people with real asylum cases — victims of persecution, torture, modern-day slavery, and other human rights abuses — who are now forbidden from claiming asylum in this country due to the desperate methods they were forced to use to get here.

While the nation basks in long-awaited sunshine this weekend, please remember the frightened individuals in detention. They came to our shores seeking refuge from the horrors of the world, only to be treated with appalling cruelty as the scapegoats for all that is wrong with our country.

We are in urgent need of funds to meet the needs of those in detention. Anyone who wishes to get involved with fundraising, supporting detainees or interpreting (especially Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish) should please contact info@lifeseekers.org

Life Seekers Aid, 10 May 2024