Shut down Yarl’s Wooden Immigration Jail: Saturday thirteenth Could 2017 was the eleventh protest outdoors Yarl’s Wooden within the Motion for Justice marketing campaign to close down this and different immigration detention centres.
For as soon as the climate was superb and there was little or no mud within the discipline going through the jail. And for some motive – maybe the home windows had been cleaned – we might see the detainees extra clearly than on some earlier events. And I appear to have written slightly extra clearly than on some events in regards to the day – so right here I’ll simply reproduce the textual content from My London Diary, with a number of of the photographs.
I’d caught the practice from St Pancras to Bedford as normal, however as a substitute of ready for the MfJ bus had introduced my Brompton, so might simply soar on it and cycle in direction of Yarlswood. It was a experience of round 6 miles, primarily alongside aspect roads or on cycle paths beside busier roads, and it was a nice sufficient experience, although Yarl’s Wooden is on a former airfield on a plateau slightly greater than town, and so it was uphill numerous the way in which. And the climb up from the closest village, Milton Ernest, was slightly lengthy and steep, although not less than I didn’t must hassle about visitors, because the police had closed the highway. However I used to be somewhat out of breath and drained as I arrived.
However Yarl’s Wooden actually is in the course of nowhere, making these inside really feel very remoted, and visits to them by anybody and not using a automobile are tedious and costly for these on low revenue. So occasions like this are necessary in reminding these inside that they haven’t been forgotten.
There have been a number of a whole lot of individuals already on the roadside – and a protracted row of coaches that had introduced them there, and there have been speeches and chanting whereas they waited for others to reach.
From the highway there may be nonetheless a protracted stroll alongside discipline edges following a public footpath, round three-quarters of a mile. Components of this have been heavy happening the Brompton, not designed for off-road use, and I did must stroll a part of the way in which, in addition to sometimes stopping to {photograph} the marchers, now round a thousand robust.
When the protesters arrived on the discipline in entrance of the tall fence across the centre, they have been welcomed by shouts and waving from these imprisoned inside who held up messages calling for justice within the slim slits the home windows open. Solely those that might get to the higher home windows on the block going through the fence might see the protest, however others inside might definitely hear it.
There have been speeches from former detainees, together with a number of girls who had been held at Yarl’s Wooden, together with Mabel Gawanas who was lately launched a number of days wanting 3 years inside, and different former immigration detainees. Individuals kicked on the fence to make a terrific racket and held up banners, posters and placards to point out the detainees in what the protesters describe as as ‘racist, sexist hell-hole’ they haven’t been forgotten. Some inside spoke to the protest by cell phone.
A number of the protesters climbed ladders to carry banners and placards above the primary stable 10 ft of the 20 foot fence, whereas others had lengthy poles or lit flares to make the protest extra seen. A number of yards again from the fence the place the bottom slopes up we might see these on the home windows and {photograph} them via the mesh fence, although it wasn’t straightforward.
I left because the protest started to attract to a detailed, biking again alongside the footpath to the highway after which having fun with the lengthy downhill stretch to the village and the primary highway. However I needed to pay for this, as a brief uphill trendy stretch of highway off stretched me nearly to exhaustion. 40 metres doesn’t sound rather a lot, however feels in on a motorcycle. And whereas the highway up from Milton Ernest does the climb at a reasonably smart price, Oakley Hill up from the A6 is not less than twice as steep. I ought to have gotten off and walked, however pleasure doesn’t enable it except it turns into actually unimaginable. For some motive my three-speed gear had determined to be a two velocity gear, however in all probability it wouldn’t have helped right here as I feel it was solely the highest gear I used to be lacking – and I wanted one thing significantly decrease. However after than it was downhill many of the approach to Bedford and a practice in all probability an hour sooner than had I been on the bus.
Extra footage at Shut down Yarl’s Wooden Jail,
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Pictures – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Pictures
All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: 20ft fence, banners placards, Brompton, detainees, flares, former detainees, immigration jail, indefinite detention, Mabel Gawanas, MfJ, cellphones, Motion for Justice, peter Marshall, prisoners, protest, Shut Down Yarls Wooden, smoke flares, home windows, girls, Yarl’s Wooden
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