Last Updated 14/02/2011
This image was drawn by Mohamed Khan while he was detained in Maghaberry Prison in 2001.
Until recently it was used as the logo of the Refugee Action Group.
Used with Permission.
‘I just wanted to take my Bible, but they wouldn’t let me.’
A detainee interviewed by NI Human Rights Commission Researchers, Our Hidden Borders: The UK Border Agency’s Powers of Detention, page 52
‘I spent a lot of time at Oakington Immigration Reception Centre and it is not organised on the idea that human beings are infinitely worthwhile.’
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, commenting on the immigration detention system, February 2008.
The enforcement of immigration controls, at our ports, airports and the border, through Operation Gull, the joint PSNI, Garda Siochana and UK Borders Agency (UKBA) operation, causes concern. Hundreds of people have been apprehended since 2005 – the recent annual total is believed to be around 600. They are then detained in GB before some are removed from the country. In addition, because some immigration infringements are now criminal offences, a number of foreign nationals may be in the NI prison system because they are suspected of offences such as the carrying of irregular documentation. There is no independent oversight of Operation Gull and it is suspected that people are targeted because of their ethnicity. A number of people have been compensated because of the detention of innocent visitors. Continue reading ‘How Immigration Policies are Enforced’
At one time people were detained locally within the prison system.
An end to child detention?
In May 2010 the Coalition Government announced the intention to end the immigration detention of children and in December Nick Clegg announced that it had ceased. By February 2011, however, anxieties were being expressed that detention of families was being reintroduced in another form through ‘pre-departure accommodation facilities’. See ‘New Centres “to detain child asylum seekers” ’ in the Independent newspaper.
New Immigration Detention Centre to open in Larne later this year
The UK Border Agency plans to open a new Immigration detention at Larne, because quite a number of people may be picked up at any one time under the Operation Gull joint police and UKBA immigration enforcement project and a difficulty arises in removing them to GB immediately. Read more about the Proposed Immigration Centre at Larne [pdf]
This image was drawn by Mohamed Khan while he was detained in Maghaberry Prison in 2001.
