About Scottish Detainee Visitors
Supporting people detained by the Immigration Service in Dungavel IRC and influencing policy on detention
Scottish Detainee Visitors Description
Scottish Detainee Visitors (SC033781) provides practical, social and emotional support to people being held in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre, as a way of alleviating feelings of isolation and stress.
SDV also seeks to influence policy on detention.
Note to all SDV Members: do not discuss any visit matters on this page.
Reviews
The story of Chevon Brown, detained and deported to Jamaica a year ago. He has no close family there.
His crime was a driving offence when he was 21, for which he received a seven month prison sentence.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/ripped-fr om-my-family-deporte…
Woman cleared of assaulting Yarl's Wood guards during an attempt to remove her.
This article contains distressing footage.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/woman-cle ared-of-assaulting-y…
Very useful flowchart from freemovement.org.uk that clearly explains the current, very restrictive, law on deportations for people with previous convictions. As Colin Yeo, from FreeMovement argued on a twitter thread this morning:
"The problem with narrowly defined exceptions is that life is full of variety. It eliminates common sense and simple humanity from decision making. Leading to absurdly harsh results and the exile of mainly black and minority ethnic people who are functionally British."
Incredibly, the flight to Jamaica left last night. It is unclear how many people were on it.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/deportati on-flight-leaves-uk-…
https://www.theguardian.com/…/judicial- review-home-office-d…
Court of appeal ruling prevents deportations to Jamaica of people in detention at Heathrow.
https://detentionaction.org.uk/…/court- of-appeal-ruling-pr…/
Michael McDonald, currently in Harmondsworth, and due to be deported to Jamaica tomorrow, has been living in the UK since he was 9. He has no family in Jamaica and a wife and family in London.
He tells his story here:
https://www.theguardian.com/…/served-ti me-prison-deported-b…
170 MPs and peers have signed a letter from Nadia Whittome MP to the Prime Minister asking him to stop tomorrow's charter flight to Jamaica until the Lessons Learned Review (from the Windrush scandal) is published and its recommendations implemented, or risk repeating the scandal.
More on the people detained at Heathrow facing deportation to Jamaica, despite having had no mobile coverage to allow them to contact their lawyers.
This article highlights the case of one man who has been in the UK since he was 11 and has a young family here. He was convicted 10 years ago of robbery under the now illegal ‘joint enterprise’ law’ and spent two months in prison.
https://www.independent.co.uk/…/deporta tion-uk-jamaica-char…
An update on the situation with the lack of mobile coverage in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook, and the scheduled charter flight to Jamaica (see yesterday's post for background):
https://www.theguardian.com/…/jamaica-d eportations-must-be-…
The quality of legal advice to people in detention is a real concern. The story below relates to detention centres in England.
People detained in Dungavel are in a better position than their counterparts down south as they are able to engage a legal aid lawyer of their own choosing. But there are still concerns. The people we speak to sometimes have not heard from their lawyer for weeks, phone lines are poor, access to interpretation is variable and people in indefinite detention, often feel helpless and hopeless about their legal position.
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/legal-aid -advice-in-deten…/…
Hundreds of people detained in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook have no mobile phone access.
The High Court has given Home Secretary, Priti Patel, until today (Thursday) to solve this problem, which is made even more urgent by the fact that a charter flight deporting people to Jamaica is scheduled for next week.
These people need to be able to contact their lawyers!
... https://www.theguardian.com/…/home-offi ce-told-to-act-as-de…
See more
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/home-offi ce-can-detain-mig…/
Delighted to see this passage in Scottish Government's paper on migration, published today.
You can read the full paper here:
https://www.gov.scot/pu…/migration-help ing-scotland-prosper/
Would you like to support our work in 2020?
Setting up a standing order of just £5 a month would pay for six mobile top ups for people in detention, or two emergency payments for someone being removed from the country.
If you could afford £10 a month, that would pay for travel for nearly 5 visits to Dungavel.
... Find out how to set up a standing order (and other ways to donate) on our website.
http://sdv.org.uk/volunteer/donate/
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The holiday season is over for another year but we're still selling our cards. You could be super-organised and buy some Christmas cards for next year, or you could treat yourself to some of our lovely 'Home Sweet Home' cards - ideal for notelets.
The cards were designed by members of our Life After Detention Group and all proceeds go to our work supporting people in detention and on release.
Click to
... http://sdv.org.uk/cards-for-sale/
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In this blog post Bella, director of our friends Detention Action reflects on the highlights of 2019.
The blog contains a link to an e-petition where you can register your opposition to immigration detention. Please click on the link and then click again!
https://detentionaction.org.uk/…/my-7-h ighlights-of-2019-a…/
Shocking story of the trial of a woman who was detained in Yarl's Wood, charged with assault after resisting deportation.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/yarls-woo d-detainee-flung-to-…