New detainees arriving at Yarl’s Wood immigration prison, run by outsourcing giant Serco, are being given new mobile phones locked to O2 SIM cards with the back covers glued on so that no other SIM cards can be used, Corporate Watch can reveal. The new system, criticised by campaigners for isolating, monitoring and exploiting detainees even further, follows a similar scheme introduced by G4S in Tinsley House, near Gatwick airport. Continue reading “Yarls Wood detainees forced to use O2 phone service”
No plans to adopt a maximum time limit for immigration detention
Damian Green says in a letter replying to a question put to an MP:
‘There are no plans to adopt a maximum time limit for immigration detention. This would be out of step with long-standing UK law and policy and goes beyond the requirements of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.’
We had hoped for changes that would affect the length of detention for those in the immigration system, and this may still come through the Judges who have decision-making authority when a bail application comes before them. See: Immigration Bail Hearings: A Travesty of Justice? Observations from the Public Gallery, Campaign to Close Campsfield, March 2011. http://closecampsfield.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/ccc-bop-report-low-res.pdf.
A default position was not mentioned in Damian Green’s letter. It looks as though we have some way to go with this campaign, and QARN as a network seeks to make connections with other campaigning organisations so that we can work collaboratively.
29.9.2011