Death at Yarl's Wood: Women in mourning, women in fear
<
http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/anonymous-interviewee-and-jennifer-alls
opp> Anonymous interviewee and Jennifer Allsopp
23 June 2014
A 40 year old woman died at Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre in
Bedfordshire, England. Jennifer Allsopp spoke, via telephone, to a woman in
Yarl's Wood who knew her.
JA: Can you tell me why you wanted to speak to openDemocracy 50.50?
A: [Name withheld] died here on Sunday morning and I wanted to say that
we're all so upset and we're not happy here. There are so many people in
here who are unwell and not to fit to be detained and deported.
JA: Did you know her?
A: Yes. I spoke with her before she died. She'd been here about nine days.
She was telling me that she was scared because she was going to be taken to
the airport. She was taken there but then she was brought back here because
of her solicitor. She was worried the Home Office were going to issue her
with another document and send her again. To me, when I saw her, she was
well. She seemed strong and was moving around.
Some people told me that two days ago someone opened the door hard and she
had a shock and was very frightened. The previous day, Saturday, she asked
her friend to do her hair and then she said, when she was doing it, 'I can't
carry on, I'm feeling unwell'.
JA: This was a friend she'd met in detention.
A: Yes, a friend from detention.
JA: How have the women in Yarl's Wood responded?
We're very upset. Especially yesterday, nobody went to the afternoon meal,
and only some people on medication went to the evening meal. We're all
remembering her, every discussion we had with her. She was really very nice.
In nine days in here she was in touch with so many people. She was strong
you know. When I met her she said 'I'm going to go and get my clothes from
the reception'. I told her 'but where will you wear your clothes in here?'
and she said, 'yes, but they are new and I am going to wear them!'
JA: So the women are in mourning?
Yes, the women are in mourning. The women are in fear. We were all just
thinking, this could happen to me as well. This could happen to any of us.
There are other people here who are sick and most of us are not believed
when we tell them. It's common. There are vulnerable women who will keep
dying in here. There are women here now in wheel chairs...there's a
paralysed woman here.
JA: It sounds like there is an atmosphere of solidarity.
A: There's an atmosphere of solidarity, we get to know people's stories. We
get the stories of people who've been here 2 years, 2 months...
JA: Have you been given much information about what has happened?
A: Now the situation is in shutdown. All they've told us is that they've
tried to contact her next of kin.
JA: Can you tell me a bit about your own experience of being detained in
Yarl's Wood?
A: In Yarl's Wood it's like looking out of a window in the middle of
nowhere. There are no houses when you look out of the window. You're brought
here in the middle of the night so you've no idea where you are: no idea
what the gates look like or what's outside.
There's little peace. Every day you have a roll call, four times a day.
Yesterday there were countless roll calls because of the situation. It was
so, so uncomfortable. I don't know what word to use.
If a new person comes in, at 2am, 4am it doesn't matter, they take them into
your room while you're sleeping. They just bring them in. They don't care if
you're asleep or not asleep. They don't care if you don't sleep again until
morning.
JA: Can you tell me a bit more about the roll call?
A: They knock on your door and check you're there. The guard could be male
or female, they don't really care. You have to be dressed, that's your
responsibility. They knock and just come straight in. They're doing one
right now [there's a loud voice in the background and a door banging.] If
you're dressing you should do it in your bathroom. They find women naked all
the time.
We have cards with our name and number. You have to carry it with you all
the time, even when you go to the toilet.
JA: What would you like to see change?
A: I look forward to the day Yarl's Wood will be shut down. We're all in
here and we're not criminals. Most of us have been in detention before we
fled our countries and we thought that running away would free us from
detention. We didn't think that instead of getting help, we'd be detained
again here in England.
I'm hoping that Yarl's Wood will be closed down and asylum seekers will not
be treated like animals in this country; that asylum seekers' cases will be
looked at properly; that we won't just be bundled in here and given a ticket
for three days time. It's so unfair the way the system works. You don't have
time to appeal. Even on the outside they make you report every Monday and
you know you could be taken into detention at any time. You do that for
years and years with so much fear inside you. Because detention is like a
prison. There's no difference as I can't go out; I can't breathe fresh air.
There's just a little square between the houses but it's still an enclosed
space.
I think about the people who have been here one year, two years: the need
for fresh air! I feel I'm locked up in a room and there's no door and no
fresh air. It's an uncomfortable feeling but again, this word... imagine
that for one month, one year. It's unbearable.
The name of the interviewee has been withheld at her request.
Received on Mon Jun 23 2014 - 13:01:41 EDT