Abolishing immigration detention takes a global movement. And it can #StartWith1visit.
Today, we & @AVIDdetention released an open letter to the US & UK to #FreeThemAll from immigration detention on behalf of 40 visitation groups at 47 immigrant prisons
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We & our partners at @AVIDdetention convene networks of volunteer visitor groups across the US & UK. Volunteer visitor groups not only provide interpersonal support to people isolated in detention centers, they also monitor for human and civil rights abuses.
We recognize that immigration detention thrives in secrecy and isolation. This is why governments have purposefully failed to protect a right to visitation.
#StartWith1Visit #FreeThemAll
As our co-founder @ChristinaFialho explains, there’s no freestanding right to visitation in the US. While the EU has begun to protect visitation rights, for the most part, countries have cut off access to the outside world for detained immigrants.
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The pandemic has brought this reality into focus. Both the US & UK have responded to #COVID19 by terminating all social visits & limiting communication.
This leaves migrants w/out independent medical support, face-to-face contact w/ family, community, & lawyers in many cases.
Since the first recorded dedicated immigrant prison was opened on Ellis Island in the US in 1892, immigration detention has been growing across the globe.
In order to abolish immigration detention in any one country, we must be committed to abolishing detention worldwide.
Today, we're re-committing to working w/ groups like @idcmonitor to build a world where no person is imprisoned for crossing a border
Governments and multi-national prison co's don't want advocates working in international solidarity. It threatens their stability & growth model
International law has enshrined the right to visitation during immigration detention.
It is time we defend this right because abolishing immigration detention worldwide can #StartWith1visit.
Will you join us? freedomforimmigrants.org/join-us-1
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