Conditions worsen at UK asylum-seeker detention centres

The intolerable conditions have led to a marked increase in the numbers engaging in self-harm. A recent survey by the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns revealed that between April 2006 and March 2007 there were 199 attempts to self-harm that required medical treatment. Incidents of this nature were happening every other day, according to findings.

A May 20 article in the Guardian documented some of the latest claims of abuse by those being held at Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth.

Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire is the largest “removal centre” in the UK. At the time it opened in 2001, it was Europe’s biggest detention centre, capable of holding up to 900 people, including children. According to anti-detention centre campaigners, “Self-harm is particularly acute at Yarl’s Wood, which reopened in September 2003 after half of it was gutted by fire during rioting in February 2002. It now houses hundreds of women, many of whom have attempted to claim asylum in Britain after fleeing war zones.”