{"id":1203,"date":"2018-10-17T15:09:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T15:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeerightscampaign.org\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2018-10-17T15:09:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T15:09:55","slug":"worse-than-prison-life-inside-britains-10-deportation-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeerightscampaign.org\/?p=1203","title":{"rendered":"Worse than prison: life inside Britain’s 10 deportation centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue flipflops, styrofoam plates and the daily clunk of the cells shutting: immigrants describe the grim reality of deportation \u2018jails\u2019<\/p>\n

I<\/span><\/span><\/strong>n some senses they look, sound, smell and taste just like prisons: bland food, bleak corridors, standard-issue tracksuits and blue flip-flops, and the mechanical clunk at 9pm when everyone is locked in for the night.<\/p>\n

But Britain\u2019s network of immigration removal centres are a case apart for the 25,000-plus people who pass through one each year: there is no rehabilitation, no criminal sentence, very often no time limit on the loss of liberty. Many of those incarcerated say the conditions are far worse than actual prison.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has spoken to dozens of current and former detainees who have provided grim testimony about what life behind bars in these 10 facilities is like. They describe depression, limbo, occasional hysteria and an all-pervading angst on the part of those detained. <\/p>\n

The internal architecture is bleak. To reach the visiting room at Harmondsworth IRC<\/a> near Heathrow airport visitors must provide their passports, a biometric thumbprint, surrender themselves to detailed pat-down searches from surgical-gloved security guards and pass through several sets of locked doors.<\/p>\n