Workers Solidarity Movement

A protest took place yesterday (7th May) in Belfast as part of a set of UK-wide and broader European demonstrations against immigration detention centres. The group of about two dozen protestors set up a mock detention centre outside of Belfast's Europa bus centre at 1pm today.

Every year over 30,000 people, including children, are locked up in prison-like conditions without a time limit, lack of judicial oversight, inadequate access to legal advice & poor healthcare. Their crime: being migrants or asylum seekers. The detention estate has become a lucrative business for private companies such as G4S, Serco, Mitie and GEO, who profit from the imprisonment of these people. Detention centres are rarely discussed in the media or on the street, with the Home Office, ignoring its own guidelines, consistently detaining pregnant women, children, or survivors of torture.

Through their action the protestors tried to highlight these issues. Information was given to members of the public about the short-term holding facility in Larne, which serves as a gateway to long-term centres in England and Scotland - including the notorious Yarl's Woods. Signatures were taken asking the government to 'END DETENTION NOW' and close down Larne and all such centres. 

Similar protests were held in other cities in the UK among them London, Leeds and Glasgow and in many european cities as well: https://shutdowndetentioncentres.wordpress.com/find-out-where-protests-a....

#ShutThemDown
https://shutdowndetentioncentres.wordpress.com/call-out/

Larne House Visitors' Group