Grabbed in a dawn raid, sent to a detention centre to be returned to a land where your life might be in danger, and before you are dispatched, you are raped. Not in some far-away dictatorship, but here in the so called civilised UK.
This appeal from The SumOfUs:
Serco, one of the largest and most powerful
companies in the UK, privately runs Yarl’s Wood in
Bedfordshire -- an immigration removal centre where
vulnerable women are detained and in some cases, raped and
sexually abused by the staff who are there to protect them.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons released a report this week
on Yarl’s Wood, urgently calling for a ban on male staff
entering the rooms of female detainees uninvited and for the
urgent recruitment of female staff. We want more than that. We
want Serco to get out of the detention business altogether.
Tell
Serco the sexual abuse of women by guards proves it has no business
being in the detention business.
“They choose younger girls, the most vulnerable. They do
whatever they want." That’s what “Tanja”,
one brave witness and detainee at Yarl’s Wood said. The staff have
worked out a convenient way to abuse the women in their care - in the
upstairs room set aside for asylum-seekers to take family
photos. There's a nice sofa, curtains, and no CCTV up
there.
We have to act quickly. The alleged victims and witnesses who
are coming forward and testifying are being deported by the Home
Office. Several of them were put on a flight to Pakistan on
1 October. We can’t let this go on another minute.
Serco will hear us. Their reputation is already in
tatters. They’re hoping that if they make a few
concessions, and sack a few staff, the controversy will die down.
We won’t let it. We won’t accept the sexual abuse and rape of
vulnerable women by Serco staff.
This is part of a pattern of abuse. In 2010 a
30-year-old woman became pregnant by an officer in Yarl's Wood. And
many other women may be too fearful to testify or are deported before
their case is sufficiently examined. These women are not
criminals - many have been victimised by traffickers or were in
abusive relationships before they were detained.
Corporations have been left unaccountable for too long. Help
hold Serco to account for their behaviour.
p.s. To make things worse, Serco also services our schools.
They manage the Local Education Authorities in Bradford, Walsall, and
Stoke-on-Trent... that’s right.
The
truth about sexual abuse at Yarl's Wood detention centre, 29
October, Open Democracy
Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre 'needs more female staff' after detainee abused by officers, 29 October, Independent
Yarl's Wood abuse allegations: Tanja's story, 14 September, Guardian
Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre 'needs more female staff' after detainee abused by officers, 29 October, Independent
Yarl's Wood abuse allegations: Tanja's story, 14 September, Guardian
