Solidarity with the Yarl’s Wood hunger strikers

Incredible organisers in Yarl’s Wood are on hunger strike and need our solidarity! Demands and statements from the hunger strikers are being published on the Detained Voices website, www.detainedvoices.com. —- Thurs 8th March marks International Women’s Day, and fifteen days on from the start of collective actions by people held in immigration detention at Yarl’s Wood. It is also the day that hundreds of people outside detention will be fasting for a day in solidarity. On Wednesday 21st February, 120 people in an immigration detention centre in Bedfordshire (which holds mainly but not only women) started a hunger strike. It gathered momentum and has escalated into an all-out strike: work strikes, occupations, and a refusal to co-operate with the mechanisms of detention from the inside. “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.” Two weeks on, the hunger strikers are being met with victimisation and threats from the Home Office. Publicly, the Home Office has issued official denials that hunger strikes are taking place; privately, they have issued strikers with letters threatening to ‘accelerate’ removal because of their actions. Join us at the Home Office to let them know that immigration detention is harmful, racist and needs to end.

Called by: SOAS Detainee Support | All African Women’s Group | Black Women’s Rape Action Project | Right to Remain