After an initial 3 day hunger strike where the Home Office refused to acknowledge the hunger strike, it is clear that they are not listening to us. On Monday 26/02/18, we will cease to participate in detention, we will not eat, use their facilities or work for them.
The detainees are thus staging an all out strike to protest the Home Office’s continued immoral practices. Our demands are for a fair system and an end to the hostile environment policy towards people with legitimate reasons to remain in the U.K.
1. We want an end to indefinite detention and a return to the original plan of the 28 day limit.
2. We want the Home Office to respect Article 8.
3. We want the Home office to respect the European Convention of Human Rights regarding refugees and asylum seekers.
4.We want the Home Office to respect due process and stop deporting people before their cases are decided or appeals are heard.
5. We want due processes before we are imprisoned on immigration matters.
6. We want a fair bail process and the Home Office to end the process of selective evidence disclosure to the immigration tribunal courts and instead disclosure of all evidence to ensure a fair judgement is reached.
7. We want adequate healthcare and especially the mental health nurse to stop operating as an extension of the Home Office asking people such questions as, “did you know you were going to stay in the UK when you entered?”
8. We want the Home Office to stop detaining the vulnerable people, that is victims of rape, that is torture, all forms of torture, trafficking, forced labour, the disabled, the mentally ill and so on.
9. We want amnesty for all people who have lived in the UK for more than 10 years and an end to the exiling of those who came as children and are culturally British.
10. We want an end to the Home Office’s of employing detainees to do menial work for £1 per hour, it prays on the vulnerable and forces them to participate in their own detention.
11. We want an end to charter flights and the snatching of people from their beds in the night and herding them like animals.
I want to stress that there are as many demands as there are detainees, everyone in detention is unfairly treated, and all we want is a fair process.
This is the only option we are left with to express how we feel. We will not eat till we are free.
