Shut Down Yarl’s Wood and All Immigration Detention Centres!

Feminist Fightback [1] is calling for a picket of the Serco Research Institute on 8 March 2008, International Women's Day, at 4.30 pm.

Serco is the company that owns Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre where up to 405 women and children asylum-seekers are detained at any time. These women, 70% of whom are survivors of rape, are held in appalling conditions. The women detained at Yarl’s Wood have reported being subject to racist and sexist physical and verbal abuse, confirmed by a recent government report investigating abuse at detention centres. They also state that the food served is inadequate, and that necessary items are sold at extortionate prices. As well, women have complained that staff members have interfered with their attempts to contact their lawyers.

Despite their ordeals, the women of Yarl’s Wood are fighting back. In May 2007, over 91 families went on hunger strike to protest against this abuse. Despite attempting to end the strike through intimidation, Serco eventually agreed to some of the women’s demands, including investigating why the women were not receiving their 71p/day government allowance. Over a hundred women also signed a letter to Gordon Brown, reporting the abuse to which they’d been subject, and appealing for amnesty. Most recently, 22 women risked serious reprisals to sign a letter demanding an immediate impartial and independent investigation into the conditions at Yarl’s Wood.

The women in Yarl’s Wood should be free to celebrate International Women’s Day with us!

We call for the immediate closing of Yarl’s Wood and all Immigration Removal Centres.

We will no longer tolerate Serco, or any other private company profiting from the oppression and misery of others.

Join us at 4.30 pm on 8 March 2008 outside the Serco Research Institute at 22 Hand Court, London, WC1V 6JF

For more information email gwyneth.lonergan@gmail.com