Tuesday 3 August 2010

Hunger Strike At Campsfield & Possibly Yarl's Wood

There seems to be some confusion on the newswires but there is definitely a hunger strike at Campsfield detention centre and, according to the Press Association, at Yarl's Wood. 147 detainees at Campsfield began refusing food - "indefinitely for our voices to be heard" - yesterday evening in protest against the poor treatment of long-term detainees.

The Home Office claim that only 108 detainees are involved but, just as they did with the Yarl's Wood hinger strikers last year*, their line is to attempt to suggest that the hunger strike is not genuine - Jonathan Sedgwick, UK Border Agency deputy chief executive: "they still have access to food from the on site shop and vending machines."

The Press Association have also got a release out linking the same UKBA statement to what is claimed to be a hunger strike at Yarl's Wood but this appears to be a mistake on their part as none of the websites for the local papers have the story.

More hopefully to follow.

UPDATE: The Press Association link above now goes to a new much shorter corrected version of the story (without mentioning that they got it wrong earlier). If you want to see the earlier version then 24Dash have more or less an exact copy of the PA text.


* There is an article in today's Guardian with a number of the women who took part in that hunger strike and they talk about their experiences and the fact that they are still involved in "a legal battle to gain official recognition that the protest even took place."

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