Cross Border Calls for Release

AVID is proud to be partnering with our sister visitors network in the United States, Freedom For Immigrants, in a joint call for the safe, and managed, release of everyone from immigration detention.

Signed by over 47 visitors groups representing over 1,778 volunteers, the letter emphasises the similarities in the use of detention in both countries and their woefully inadequate response to the current epidemic.

Visitors are a lifeline for people in detention and are often the first port of call for people who are feeling vulnerable and isolated. Visitors are also often the first to report concerns and act as informal 'human rights monitors'. They are providing on the ground support every day to people in detention.

With organisations from Glasgow to Guadalupe, and from Houston, Nottingham, Iowa and Bedford, the letter represents the first joint call from visitors groups in both countries. We are asking the Governments to release everyone from detention as a matter of urgency, and to ensure they recieve ongoing support in the community.

Here in the UK, concerns about the repurposing of Yarl's Wood into a short term holding facility and of Morton Hall into a prison for foreign nationals has again raised major questions about the Government's ad hoc and reactive approach which consistently ignores human rights and welfare concerns, putting vulnerable people at risk.

You can read the letter in full here