Friday 21 May 2010

A Letter From Yarl's Wood

Twelve families, including 2 pregnant women and 14 children and babies, the youngest of whom is one month old and currently locked up at the controversial Yarl's Wood Detention Centre, have signed a joint letter to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pleading with him for an immediate end to their detention and that of all families and children in the UK immigration detention system.

One of these families writing this has been locked up in detention for eight months, even though the guidelines state they are only meant to be there for a few days. The children involved age's range from 1-16 years old. As the letter states "(t)hey have been out of school for long time. Most of them speak English as first language and do not speak their mother tongue. They were born in this country and do not know other country apart from England. The(y) ask question about why they are here, why they are different from other children and we often haven't got the answers for them."

"We sought protection from a country we believe in and has a tradition and good values of democracy. We have escaped our country because of fear of persecution. Our life and our children's is n danger. We are living an endless nightmare. We have been in the country for long time, from 2 years to 11 years. All we wanted is to have a life and live with decency."

Please help to end the inhumane detention of families and children by contacting Nick Clegg and your local MPs, calling for the immediate release of the 12 families back to their communities so that their children can return to a normal life and schools and for the release of all other families within the detention system.

Please support this call by e-mailing Nick Clegg at:
cleggn@parliament.uk

[Based on a press release from Positive Action In Housing, the Scottish ethnic minorities housing agency.]

No comments: