Promoting the rights of women seeking asylum in the UK
Real lives - Women and children behind bars in the UK
Thousands of women and children pass through immigration detention in the UK each year, some for a few days, many for several weeks or months. Many of them never get to tell their stories to anyone. Some brave women have spoken to us about their experiences of being held in Yarl's Wood in Bedford, which is the main detention centre for women and families. Over 400 individuals are locked up there at any one time. Read the stories of these women, who are usually unseen and unheard.
© Isabell Merminod All Rights Reserved
Deborah
Deborah was detained in Yarl's Wood for six months in 2007 - she was interviewed while still detained
I have been in this place, Yarl's Wood, for six months, and before that I was in prison for a year, and all that time without my three children. I am here without them even though I have served my sentence, this place is full of depression and stress and I don't know when I'll get out. I would prefer prison to this place. Detention is endless. They never say when you will be released; they never say what will happen, it's so stressful. And they treat women bad, especially when they remove them. There is no dignity, just swearing and abuse. But most of all being separated from your children is so so depressing. We speak often but it's never the same. We just end up crying on the phone. I'm worried about my eldest boy because now he is misbehaving. He can't take it. He is 14 now and he can't take it. He says if he was living with me he wouldn't misbehave but he doesn't know what to do to make himself happy. My daughter, she is depressed where she is but social services won't move her. The other day she took ten paracetemol at once, she is so unhappy. And the youngest, he is coping better but he is not ok, he always complains "Mummy when is this going to end?" We women just don't have the heart to stand all this stress.
And some women in here just can't handle it. There are so many who are mentally distressed, they go round talking to themselves. The separation of mothers and children has a very bad effect. Nobody can look after you like your parents. Social services are supposed to bring my children to see me here once a month, I was promised this, but for the last year I have seen them only four times. I was arrested for having false documents; I was working as a care assistant and studying as a nurse though I didn't have leave to remain. I served a prison sentence for this and when that was finished I was put into Yarl's Wood. Social services couldn't find anyone to take all three children so they were placed separately.
I knew I was working illegally but I was paying my taxes duly, paying my National Insurance contribution. And I've never claimed benefits, not even for my children. Immigration officials confiscated all my money. And now they want to send me back to Nigeria, with nothing. I claimed asylum because of what happened to me in my home country, that was in March, but I didn't have a solicitor. I wasn't granted legal aid and because I didn't know about these things I didn't challenge it. My claim was refused. I've made four more applications for bail since then but each has been refused. They refuse because they say I am going to abscond. But I don't understand, how am I going to abscond when I have my children here?
My children have been in the UK for years now, they are not really Nigerian. Even if I have to go back it wouldn't be fair to send them back. I was even telling them to deport me but just first give me some time to see my children. I don't understand what they want with me here, here without my children. I feel like I'm stranded.
Deborah's name has been changed
Interview by Helen Raynsford
Tessa
Tessa, 25 years old, was detained in Yarl's Wood for three weeks in 2005 and six weeks in 2007
I am from Kampala in Uganda. I left my country after my father was killed. I felt I was in danger from the men who killed him. I have three girls. My twins are three and a half and my baby is two months. I arrived in the UK from Uganda in 2003, and I claimed asylum immediately. I got married in September 2004. Ever since I arrived I had been going to Croydon every month to sign with the immigration office. In April 2005 I went to Croydon to sign. They told me to go to the other side. They locked me in the room. There was a lady and four men. They told me, "Your asylum claim has failed. You are not supposed to be here. You must go back to your country." I told them about the problems I had passed through in my country but they were not concerned. They asked me my address. They drove me to Barking to collect a few belongings and the van parked outside my flat. I stayed in the van with two ladies who wouldn't allow me to say anything to my husband, not even say bye - nothing - or look through the window. The officers brought the twins down with some clothes and milk. Then they drove us to Yarl's Wood Immigration Detention Centre. The twins were one year.
The next day they drove me to Heathrow airport with the twins. During the journey they would not allow me to touch the girls. I was breastfeeding but the escorts held the girls. They took me to the airline. They took out the children first. Then they told me to come out. I feared so much that the blood started coming through my nose. I fell on the ground. The children were already on the plane. The pilot refused to take me. They must have thought we cannot take such a person, I was in a terrible state. The escorts were very fast. They got the children off the plane, put me back in the van, then drove very fast back to Yarl's Wood. There was a woman in the van who slapped me. They tied my hands in front of me. I was crying and she kept saying, "Why are you crying you silly cow". They tied my hands so that I could not touch my children. This woman kept pushing my head back roughly and saying rude things to me. We stayed at Yarl's Wood for three weeks.
The food was not good for the children. I was breast feeding and giving them blended food but they gave us things like chicken and chips. They wouldn't blend food for the children. There were many children in the detention centre and we were all suffering. My husband had got a solicitor and eventually they got me out. When they released me they didn't give me a reason why. They hadn't told my husband that I was being released but they let me call him and he came and collected us.
At the end of 2005 my husband was granted Indefinite Leave to Remain. Throughout 2006 I continued to sign at the immigration office in Croydon. In April 2007 I was five months pregnant. I went to sign. When I was seen I was told I would be detained again. This time they took me to a room and told me I had to go back to my country. I said, "What about my children?" They said the children can remain with their father in the UK but you have to go. They took me in a car which had cages inside separating the people. I wanted to drink water all the time. They gave me water in a tin, passing it under the cage and throwing it in at us. They drove around and collected seven other people. There were seven women and one man. We were all in individual cages.
This time I went to the detention centre alone, without the children. Detention is hell. You cannot want anyone to go there. When I was there with the children, they used to ask me, "Mummy, where is Daddy?" When he came to see us the children wanted to go with him. The security guards had to pull them away from him, denying them all that love. Then I was away from my children for about six weeks. They kept asking, "Daddy, where is Mummy?" and he couldn't explain it to them. They are so young. This world is not easy really. The world is not easy.
Tessa's name has been changed
Interview by Allison Bennett
Sarah
Sarah, 27 years old, detained in Yarl's Wood for three weeks in March 2007, and for 3 months from July to November 2007
I come from Benin City in Nigeria. My husband ran away and I do not know where he is. Some soldiers came for him. I was raped and my face was slashed with a knife. I fled Nigeria and claimed asylum here on 31st January 05 when I arrived at the airport. I was 6 months pregnant when I arrived in the UK and was interviewed at the airport.
On 14th March 2007 I had been refused asylum and had come to the end of the appeal process. I was arrested at home and taken to Yarl's Wood IRC where I stayed for 3 weeks. While we were in Yarl's Wood my son stopped eating, he was just crying all the time. One morning when the clocks changed everyone woke up late and the kitchen was closed. They wouldn't let us have any breakfast, and the children were hungry. When we protested to the officers on duty they said it was not their business. One woman took a banana for her child, but the guard took it from her. My son was not eating, just drinking water and eating biscuits. He developed a rash and he cried every night, he couldn't sleep. I was very stressed. I kept smacking him and then I felt bad, but it was just the stress. I hadn't had access to my medication. They said I had mental health problems and I was released.
The second time I was detained immigration officers picked me up again from my house at 7.30 in the morning. They said: "Your Judicial Review has been refused, you are going back now." This time at Yarl's Wood my son again was not happy. He was fighting and if I left him in the schoolroom the teacher would bring him to me crying. He said "Mummy, can we go back home? I want to see Frances." (Frances is my friend who had stood bail the first time.) It was not easy to get help once I was in Yarl's Wood. I was told "No, no, no, who do you want? Why do you want to send this fax?" Staff would say "Nobody can help you, why don't you go back? You are going back to Africa".
When people were taken to the Airport the escorts would use handcuffs, people were beaten, pushed. You do not go to the plane up the passenger ramp; you go in through a door at the rear of the plane. I knew one Ugandan woman who was 5 months pregnant - they beat her, used handcuffs, then held her husband down and beat them both. Then they brought them back and that's how we knew what had happened.
I want to tell politicians here that they should help us - we are the mothers of the children who are suffering. They think we lie, but we are not here to cause troubles.
Sarah's name has been changed
Interview by Kath Sainsbury
Nicola
Nicola has been detained in Yarl's Wood for more than six months and was still there in January 2008
I have been here, in Yarl's Wood, for more than six months, without my daughter, who is three years old. I don't get to see my daughter very often. It costs so much for my mum to bring her here from London. And when she does come she throws tantrums when she has to leave, she'll say, "Mummy let's go, get your bag". When I speak to her on the phone she always asks me when I'm coming home. Us being separated is having a really bad effect. A huge strain has been placed on my mum and my daughter as a result of my detention and this is having a negative effect on us all. I don't want to tell immigration officials where my daughter is because I'm scared they will bring her here, this environment is just not suitable for a three-year old with health problems.
I come from Lagos, Nigeria. My father is a journalist and has been imprisoned many times for his anti-governmental stance. For a couple of years I couldn't see him at all, it was just not safe for us, his children, to be seen in his presence. Like him I was politically engaged in Nigeria, I was involved with a group trying to secure the independence of an oil-rich but underdeveloped region of the country.
I first came to England in 1998, but on a tourist visa. My daughter was born in the United States. I had gone to visit my sister who was working as a doctor there. I knew I was pregnant at the time, but when I was there a whole week passed when I didn't feel my baby. So I visited a doctor who told me the baby would have to be born by caesarean section, I had to have emergency surgery in America. My daughter was born with a kidney condition for which she underwent surgery at the age of eight months. This condition requires her attending regular medical appointments for scans and other observations. She will require follow-up at least until the age of 5.
On February 14th 2007 I was taken into remand for working illegally, for which I served a 10 month sentence. It was at this point that my mum came from Nigeria to care for my daughter. Once I had completed this sentence I was sent to Yarl's Wood, where I've been ever since.
But there is clearly a real muddle about my situation. My daughter was given removal directions in October, they told us that she would be sent to Chicago and they would have a nanny arranged for her there. This made no sense. My daughter was born in Maryland, we don't know anyone in Chicago and they wanted to send my daughter, who was two years old then, on her own on an aeroplane to a foreign country.
My mother is now too scared to take my daughter to the doctor, even though she has to go regularly. She thinks that there will be immigration officers waiting for them, that they will just remove my daughter there and then. I've tried to get bail to attend hospital appointments with her but I've never been allowed. My mum doesn't know how to care for her, she tries so hard but she really doesn't know. I've been the sole carer of my daughter since birth, her condition is complicated but I've had time to learn about it. My mum rings me to ask what to do but it's so hard to tell if there is a problem just by listening to descriptions on the phone.
On one occasion I was woken up by two officers and three escorts and was taken to the airport to be removed, they told me I would be going back to Nigeria. I was put on the plane even though I told the officers repeatedly that my case was still being heard at the High Court. I asked an officer how she could justify sending me to Nigeria without my daughter, she asked me if I would go quietly or if she would force me onto the plane. They handcuffed me and forced me to my seat, calling me a criminal. But then another escort appeared and told them they had to let me go. I was taken off the plane and put in a van. But rather than returning me to Yarl's Wood the van went to Colnbrook, a detention centre for men. 24 hours later I was brought back to Yarl's Wood where I spent 7 days in segregation in an "induction unit". I felt as if that was some sort of a punishment for not having been removed.
People need to know about detention centres. The purpose of the centres is stated as being to house those due for imminent removal, it's supposed to be the last option considered, yet they seem to be the first option used. Even children are being detained here indefinitely. These places seem to be used as a tool to punish us. You only need to see some of the children here to understand, they look so sad. I don't know how they can lock children up in detention. And if you put a mother in detention you're not just punishing her, you're punishing her kids. There's no way it can't have a psychological effect. People need to know what's going on here.
Nicola's name has been changed
Interview by Helen Raynsford
Fatmata
Fatmata, 23 years old, was detained for six months in 2007 in Yarl's Wood
My name is Fatmata and I come from Sierra Leone. I left my country because of the problems I had with my family. I claimed asylum when I arrived at the airport, that was the 23rd of June. I was taken to Tinsley IRC and then to Yarl's Wood. I was fighting my own case. The Home Office said they would provide me a solicitor but he only came once. My case was still pending when I was taken to the airport for removal, so I was brought back to Yarl's Wood. But then it was refused at the High Court, so they scheduled my removal for 17th September.
When that day came I was seriously sick. I was 26 weeks pregnant and I was so sick. An officer had to help me get to my room. Then they came to take me, but I was not well, I couldn't even walk. A different officer came, he told me to get up, but I was so sick I couldn't. Then he told my room-mate to get out, but she protested and refused to leave. The manager called seven officers to come to my room. They took my room-mate to a cell. One officer lifted my feet onto the floor; one hit me; one held my head down and I was dragged out of the room.
I was taken downstairs to reception but the escorts saw I was not alright, they saw the way the officers were having to hold me up. So the officers were told to take me to the hospital. But they didn't. They took me to the cell instead.
Life in detention is really really horrible. They talk of human rights there but there are none. You can't get proper medical attention. In Yarl's Wood they wouldn't let me see a nurse or a midwife for four weeks. When I finally saw a midwife she said I shouldn't be in there in my condition. But another removal was scheduled, for the 11th October, when I was 28 weeks pregnant. I was still seriously sick. And again the escorts wouldn't take me. They saw how sick I was and they wouldn't take me.
After that I was released from detention, and I gave birth on 2nd January. And now I have to report once a week in Old Street. I can't afford to go and sign, I can't afford the travel costs, because I'm destitute and I get no benefits, nothing. It's so cold at the moment. And I have to take my baby with me. Last time we went she was so sick when we came back, it's too cold for a baby. I went to the Refugee Council for assistance but they said they couldn't help me. They said I'd only been released from detention to have my baby and so they couldn't assist me. Now I don't have any support here, I don't have any money. I heard through friends that my fiancée in Sierra Leone passed away. If I go back to Sierra Leone I'm sure my parents will kill me, so I have nowhere to go.
When I was twelve I was forced to marry, but my husband died within a year. So I returned to live with my parents. I got a fiancée but when my parents found out they told me to stop the relationship. I come from a very religious family, we are Muslim but my fiancée was Christian, he was also from a different tribe. My people are very traditional, and entering into this relationship was against their religion.
I became pregnant, and at three months my parents noticed. They asked who had impregnated me. When I told them they told me I had to abort the baby. You see it is against our tradition to be pregnant and live with your parents, if that's where you are living then you cannot give birth. So they locked me in the kitchen for two weeks. They beat me. In order to sustain my life I had to lick their plates when they had finishes eating. When it was really hot I would wring my clothes to drink the moisture. It came to the point when I had to escape. So I went to my fiancee's house. I had nightmares all the time, I couldn't sleep. I was so stressed I delivered my baby early, at only 8 months.
My parents visited me in hospital. They wanted to take my baby and kill him. They said that as long as he was alive my relationship with his father would continue. So my fiancée took the baby before my parents could. We gave him to a friend to look after. He is still with that friend now.
I decided to go back to my parents, but they no longer treated me like a daughter. My father raped me. He beat me mercilessly. And when people tried to come to my aid he told them "I've just caught her with men outside". I had to leave again. I had a distant relative in England. I contacted this uncle and asked him to send me an invitation to come. He accepted and sent me this. We arranged that he would contact me when I arrived but we have never communicated.
I have nowhere to go. Now I don't have any support here. At times I just feel like killing myself. I'm tired. It's so difficult. I'm really suffering.
Interview by Helen Raynsford