Urgent call for international solidarity with hunger strikes in UK migrant detention centres
Hundreds of people are on hunger strike in over half of the UK’s immigration detention centres. This is the biggest uprising against Britain’s racist detention system for a decade.
People are speaking out through a blog
- Detained Voices: https://detainedvoices.wordpress.com
- Standoff Films: https://www.facebook.com/standoffilms
To put international pressure on the UK government, we need solidarity protests outside British Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates in your countries, as soon as possible. We also need foreign journalists to cover the hunger strike.
Please let us know if you can help organise this. People inside are hugely motivated to know that knowledge of their protest is spreading. Any coverage is a win.
Supportive messages/photos can be sent to detainedvoices@riseup.net. If you would like to speak to a media spokesperson from those detained we can also put you in contact.
The protests come after a TV channel released secret footage from inside these racist prisons:
But media coverage in the UK has been almost entirely restricted to a single TV channel – Channel 4: http://www.channel4.com/news/harmondsworth-immigration-detention-centre-hunger-strike).
The only consistent other coverage comes from Russia Today.
People detained and involved in the protests ask that their struggle be known by all.
There have been UK solidarity actions regularly over the last week. See Anti Raids.
A bus taking people to the airport due to be deported to Afghanistan was also blocked.
Love, rage and solidarity