Thread by @EverydaySexism

Welcome to the @4refugeewomen takeover of the @EverydaySexism account! Tonight three women will share their stories of what it is like to be locked up in immigration detention.

Join the conversation by using #SetHerFree

Near Bedford, on an industrial estate that was a former military research facility, there is a detention centre for women called #YarlsWood.

Here, over 1500 women who have come to the UK to escape persecution are locked up each year.

#SetHerFree

There is no time limit on immigration detention in the UK, so women can be locked up for weeks, months or even years.

The UK is the only country in Europe with no time limit on detention. This is a human rights scandal.

#SetHerFree #Time4aTimeLimit

At @4refugeewomen we have been working closely with women who are locked up in #YarlsWood detention centre for many years.

We have seen the harm that it has caused thousands of women who are trying to rebuild their lives in safety.

#SetHerFree

#YarlsWood is surrounded by high walls and fences. It resembles a prison. And it is a secretive place - it took @hackneyabbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, over a year to be granted permission to visit and journalists are denied formal access. #SetHerFree

Women's smartphones are taken away from them when they are taken to #YarlsWood, and we are not allowed to film or take photos. #SetHerFree

But what we can do is make sure that women's voices can be heard outside of #YarlsWood. Our #SetHerFree campaign is led by women who have themselves been locked up in detention, and who can speak from experience about what it is like.

refugeewomen.co.uk/campaign/

Through our research we have shown that the vast majority of women (85%) who are locked up in #YarlsWood are survivors of sexual or other forms of gender-based violence.

We have seen and heard how detention retraumatises these women and damages their mental health. #SetHerFree

The Home Office promised to stop routinely detaining survivors, because of the harm it causes them, when it introduced its 'Adults at Risk' policy.

But we have shown how this guidance is continually ignored and how vulnerable women remain in detention.

#SetHerFree

In 2016, we (@4refugeewomen) campaigned to end the detention of pregnant women.

99 female musicians, actors, writers, politicians, activists joined us, including @EverydaySexism Laura Bates, to say #SetHerFree.

refugeewomen.co.uk/99women/

We won a 72-hour time limit on the detention of pregnant women, but this does not go far enough.

Since 2016, 104 pregnant women have been locked up.

It's time to end the detention of pregnant women altogether. #SetHerFree

And the detention of women who have survived rape and other gender-based violence, & other vulnerable people, must stop.

The evidence on the harm detention causes already vulnerable people is undeniable. It's time the Home Office enforced its own guidance on this.

#SetHerFree

There's widespread support to end the detention of vulnerable women.

Stephen Shaw made this recommendation in his review into the welfare of vulnerable people in detention, commissioned by @theresa_may.

The @APPGRefugees @APPGMigration detention inquiry recommended the same.

In fact, there is no need to lock up women who have claimed asylum in the UK at all.

Most of these women are subsequently released into the community to continue with their asylum claims. Locking them up serves no purpose.

So #SetHerFree!

The Home Office may say that detention is a 'last resort', but what we see in practice is vulnerable women being routinely locked up.

Overall, the Government's use of detention is beginning to reduce. BUT that does not apply to women.

Shut down #YarlsWood now to #SetHerFree.

Indefinite detention has no place in our society, AT ALL.

As the #ImmigrationBill passes through Parliament, there is an opportunity for all of us to encourage our MPs to support an amendment to the Bill to introduce a 28-day time limit on all detention.

#Time4aTimeLimit

With Brexit dominating the agenda, we're concerned that the scandal of the indefinite detention of asylum-seeking women is being ignored.

Our Home Secretary @sajidjavid has never visited #YarlsWood. We call on him to go there and listen to the women.

#SetHerFree

Help us today by spreading the word about the detention of women who are seeking safety in the UK, using the hashtag #SetHerFree.

And write to your MP to build support - there's a template letter on our website: refugeewomen.co.uk/campaign/

And stay tuned, because Mariam, Agnes and Mary (not her real name) are now going to share their own stories of detention.

Mariam was detained for 2 weeks, Agnes was detained for 3 months and Mary is detained in #YarlsWood right now.

#SetHerFree