””“This documentary film is a dramatization of actual accounts of the UK’s immigration detention system, narrated by the migrants who experienced them. All names have been withheld to protect anonymity” My name is Abal al-Bashir, I am from Sudan. I came to this country to seek safety. I came as a refugee and I claim asylum. I was originally born in Ghana, but I haven’t lived or been to that country since I was four year’s old Well, I came to the UK not for any reason, but to seek asylum, for the safety of my life. I was at risk back home in Uganda When my application was rejected, I was on the verge of committing suicide I spent a total of two and a half months in detention I’m originally from Sri Lanka, I’m here to save my life, I’m a victim of torture. I’ve been detained in this country for almost six years I would like to sort of shed a light onto an important issue the majority of people are not awrae of and that’s indefinite detention. “In 1995 the Uk detained 381 people under Immigration Act Powers [Darren: your source says that this figure is the number in detention of May 1995. Do you have a figure for the total of that year? Otherwise approximate—LC]. By 2015 that number had risen to 32, 446. Detainees are held indefinitely. The Uk is one of few countries in Europe with no upper time limit on detention. [Darren: On Pg 16, the report says ”“The United Kingdom is one of only a few countries within the Council of Europe not to have an upper time limit on detention.””] ” INVISIBLE John - 2.5 months in detention. Back home in Uganda, I was arrested, I was tortured, so it was just by luck that I left the country. I arrived in the UK, 4th of November, 2014. And on the same day I claimed asylum In itself I didn’t know what was going on. They said they were taking me to a detention centre. The van it had disabled locks, it had quite a nasty smell because the windows cid not oopen at all. I looked at myself as a big criminal, like they were transporting a terrorist. What really terrified me was the big fence and the barbed wire and the officers that were guarding the place That’s when I passed out. That’s when my mind was like: ‘You’re dead now, you’re dead.’ They checked out stuff, took my phone… That night I didn’t manage to cathc any sleep whatsoever, I spent the whole night crying. I was scared, I was terrified. I was like: ‘I think I’m finished, I think I’m finished, I think I’m finished.’ David - Currently in detention. Welcome to Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. If you have a touch headphone, please selct one of the following options: Press ‘1’ for Colnbrook, or press ‘2’ for Harmondsworth. Is this a real recording? I’m at the detention centre, this one is called Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. I have been detained for over a year now. People are desperate, people are desperate for freedom. It’s a factory of mental illness, it’s completely diofferent from prison. They kill your hopes here, they kill your dreams, they destroy yourt family. When a human being has been stirpped of rights to family, rights to freddom, rights to expression, then you are no longer a human being. That’s why the suicide rate is very very high. Most of the time I feel like hitting the wall, I feel like I want to bang my head against the wall. It’s frustration and some sort of mental pyschosis. You feel like you want to scream, you feel like you want to shout, you feel like you are going to die. Hearing somebody praying on their knees asking for strength not to kil themselves, it’s um… yeah, it’s a very difficult thing, a very difficult thing Michael - 2.5 years in dentention. Self harm in detention was an everyday occurent thing. It ranges from people cutting themselves, trying to hang themselves… The worst thing that I saw in detention was um… I heard this scream. This scream wasn’t like any other scream. So I decided to step outside my door. My whole body just froze. Everytime I try to picture it, it seems to be that he was on fire forever. How long? How long do I have to be in here until I reach that stage? I’ve seen things. I have seen things. But nothing like this. In 2015, suicide attempts in detention centres averaged one a day. Of the 2,957 people on suicide watch in detention, 11 were children. Could be a week, there could be two. The two weeks might mount into a year. Two years or three. When I got detained, I was never given an explaination; why, or how, or when I’d be released Idefenite means to be in a state, or be in a condition for a time you don’t know how long. That’s indefinite. To me, asylum seeking in this country is like a living hell. When you look at the kind of beaureaucracy that is within detention and within the whole process of asylum seeking, it’s like climbing a mountain. Looking at all the forms and the procedure you have to go through is quite heartbreaking. When you’re in a prison you’ll be counting your days down, but in detention you’re counting them up. Many migrants in detention are deemed unreturnable to their country of origin. More than half of those detained are released back into the community. [what is the specific source for this? 55% per your press release is more than half, not nearly 2/3; cut rest of sentence] The happiness of release hits youa s a relaity of serious worries. Abdal - 6 years in detention. You only have your train ticket, or bus ticket to get you to the address the UK Border Agency has provided for you to go. You go back to society with nothing. No money, no clothes, no support, no nothing. You are starting form zero and you’ve got to build your life up again. Even though I’m freed from detention, I’m not free. I’ve been tagged on my leg and I have to be at home every single day, as well as reporting every two weeks to the police station. For two years I’ve been doing this. So how could I ever recover, how could I ever get on with my life? Is this an actor? May 7th 2016. Yarls wood Immigration Removal Centre National day of action against detention. I would like to see all detention centres closed down. I would like to see the word ‘migrant’ iradicated. I would like to see the word ‘illegal’ associated with a person iridicated. No person is illegal. But this is the country the aspire, this is the country that advocates human rights. This is a multi million pound industry for somebody. The routine detention of refugees and migrants has become an opaque and unregulated process—as well as a multimillion-pound industry. They lock us up. We lost our family, we lost our children, we lost our self, our self confidence, our self esteem. And they broke us as mans[sic]. But will I sit here and cry about it? No. We still have guts, and we still have heart. I’m gonna pick myself up, I’m gonna stand, and I’m gonna fight.