Protesters demand closure of UK detention centre

Protesters demand closure of UK detention centre

10:30 am

Aljazeera
About 1,500 people have protested outside the UK’s Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre, demanding that the government close its doors and release its detainees.
Wet and muddy conditions were not enough to silence cries for freedom from the demonstrators on Saturday afternoon after they squelched through two fields to reach the isolated centre.
Demonstrators, including a number of asylum seekers and refugees, travelled from as far as Glasgow to participate in the protest organised by the grassroots Movement for Justice organisation.
Waving colourful home-made banners and printed placards, demonstrators used drums, whistles, sound systems, pots and pans, and kicked the sturdy five-metre high metal fence, to ensure the 350 women detainees could hear them.
Holding banners up to the windows, the detained women participated in the protest via calls relayed on loudspeaker for the crowd to hear.
“I’m so proud of you,” said former detainee and Movement for Justice organiser Maimuna Jawo, addressing the women inside the centre.
“The more you keep on fighting, the more you’ll see us here. We are here because of you and we will shut this centre down!”