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Last modified on Sat 15 May 2021 23.37 EDT
The Home Office has pursued a policy of psychological brutality by locking up scores of torture survivors in solitary confinement for indefinite periods, according to fresh testimony from immigration detainees.
Interviews dictated from prison reveal some torture and trafficking victims have had to spend more than 23 hours a day in solitary confinement for periods of up to a year. Their accounts portray mental health breakdown, self-harm and suicide attempts after the Home Office opted to place detainees inside the prison network as part of its Covid measures.
The charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (Bid) has written to senior immigration officials warning the prolonged solitary confinement of an estimated 500 detainees appeared to breach the UN’s minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners.
Humanitarian groups have criticised UK interior minister
Priti Patel for suggesting a fire at a former military barracks being used to house asylum seekers was intentional. Heavy smoke billowed across Napier Barracks, in Folkestone
, Kent on Friday but nobody was injured.
Police and fire services
are investigating the cause.
The centre housing around 100 people claiming asylum in the UK has also seen a number of cases of Covid-19. “The damage and destruction at Napier Barracks is not only appalling but deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country, who are providing this accommodation while asylum claims are being processed,” Ms Patel said.
Workers Revolutionary Party
ACTIVISTS threw fake blood at the gates of Napier Barracks last Thursday – in protest against the conditions in which hundreds of asylum seekers are being forced to live.
An anonymous group of human rights activists has dressed in white boiler suits and masks and erected posters addressed to Home Secretary Priti Patel outside what was once a military camp in Folkestone, Kent.
The fake blood has been thrown, they say, ‘to send a clear message to Priti Patel and to the Home Office’. The boards read: ‘Protect human rights. Close Napier now. Priti Patel, there will be blood on your hands. #SolidaritywithNapier.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel has clashed with refugee charities as police investigate suspected arson at a virus-hit military barracks in Kent where hundreds of asylum seekers have been living.
Heavy smoke and flames were seen pouring from Napier Barracks in Folkestone on Friday afternoon amid blaring alarms.
The barracks, which have been housing around 400 people, has been dogged by accusations of poor conditions and recently at least 120 residents reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.
Ms Patel said the “damage and destruction” at the military site was “deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country” and vowed to support police.
However, charities accused her of playing politics and making “sweeping accusations”.