Protestors will gather again for the monthly at Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) this Saturday from 12-2pm to continue their calls for the centre to be closed down. They will be joined this month by Labour MP for the City of Durham Mary Foy, who has been active in opposing the centre since it was announced. In a letter to the Home Secretary in April 2021, Foy made it clear that she morally objects to immigration detention centres, as they “serve only to criminalise and imprison people simply because of where they were born.”
Foy will be joining the protest just over a week since Holocaust survivor Joan Salter publicly questioned current Home Secretary Suella Braverman on her inflammatory, hate-filled language towards those seeking safe passage. Language that Braverman and her predecessors have used to justify to the wider public the abhorrent treatment and imprisonment of people in centres such as Derwentside. In a video posted by Freedom from Torture on Twitter, Salter likened the language used by Braverman (who has referred to those fleeing as ‘swarms’ and an ‘invasion’) to that used by Nazi Germany to dehumanise and justify the murder of Jewish people, including Salter’s family.
The clip shows Braverman categorically refusing to apologise for using such language, which she argues highlights the ‘scale of the problem’. A spokesperson from No to Hassockfield, who co-organise the monthly protests with Abolish Detention and Durham People’s Assembly, said,
“Braverman’s appalling use of language to describe desperate people fleeing unimaginable horror is shameful and does not represent the majority of the British people who have historically opened their hearts and their homes to people seeking sanctuary. With National Holocaust Memorial Day on the horizon we should be reminding everyone of where the type of behaviour demonstrated by Braverman can lead to. It begins with words and politicians should be mindful of whipping up hate.
Equally we condemn the local MP’s description of the women incarcerated in Derwentside IRC; Richard Holden routinely labels the vulnerable women asylum seekers as ‘criminals’ and ‘illegals’. As Holocaust survivor Lord Alf Dubs reminded us, no-one is illegal and seeking sanctuary is not a crime. We continue to stand in solidarity with those seeking sanctuary and will redouble our efforts to close down Derwentside IRC at Hassockfield.”
You can find out more and support the campaigns here:
Details of campaigns:
Abolish Detention
Facebook – Abolish Detention – Hassockfield
Email – [email protected]
Durham People’s Assembly
Email – [email protected]
Facebook – @durhampeoplesassembly
No to Hassockfield
Email – [email protected]
Facebook – @No2Hassockfield
