UK protesters demand closure of immigrant detention center

British protesters stage a rally to urge the closure of a notorious immigrant detention center in the United Kingdom.

The largest protest yet against Britain’s most notorious immigration removal center took place on Saturday, as campaigners denounced Yarl’s Wood as an “abomination” that should be closed immediately, the Guardian reported.

Protesters rallied outside the detention center in Bedfordshire, where hundreds of women are incarcerated. The vast majority of inmates are failed asylum seekers who have committed no crime, the report added.

Protesters from as far away as Cornwall and Manchester traveled to Yarl’s Wood, with activist groups throughout the country raising money for weeks to hire transport and get protesters to the event.

Now Rodney Shakespeare, political analyst, in London says the “UK immigration policy is racist, sexist and has a sinister aspect.”

He said, “Women are locked up for an indefinite period without any allegation against them…It is highly likely that those who have power over them are likely to abuse that power.”   

A recent parliamentary report said Home Office officials were failing to follow guidance that immigration detention should be used sparingly and for the shortest period possible.

The UK is the only country in the European Union not to have a time limit on detention, according to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees.

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