Immigration Detention

The UK immigration detention system is in desperate need of reform. The UK is the only country in Europe that does not set a time limit on immigration detention.

In light of this, Faiths Forum for London and René Cassin ran a campaign raising awareness of the extreme and long-lasting physical and psychological harm caused by indefinite detention. The campaign promoted collective action to reform the practice and to offer justice to those who enter our country peacefully.

As part of the campaign, we hosted a successful and very well-attended webinar with René Cassin, “An Introduction to Immigration Detention”. It was designed to raise awareness, give an introduction to the issues and engage faith communities with them. Themes included:

• The current situation regarding immigration detention
• Perspectives from religious leaders
• Humanising immigrants: every person affected is more than a name or a statistic
• Why the UK is the only country in Europe to detain people indefinitely
• The mental health impacts of detention
• Making detention more humane
• How to involve faith communities in awareness of immigration issues

Our speakers ranged from faith leaders to outreach workers, policymakers and people with lived experience of detention. At the end of the event we encouraged attendees to sign the petition against Hassockfield detention centre, written by one of our speakers, Agnes Tanoh.