I will tell you about some of the people I met here. Lots of them are my friends. We often joke together.
There was an old, old man from Pakistan whose hair and beard were white. He was in F block and was due to be deported on 28th March. He really didn’t want to go back to his country, so he made a pile of things like his trousers and slippers and his Home Office documents and he made a fire. Then he set fire to his legs and stood on the burning things. People tried to push him out of the fire. I was scared and the officers came running to put water on the fire.
2 weeks later I saw him and his legs and hands were all bandaged up and he had two walking sticks. I felt so sorry for that man. He was so sad. He knew he was old and that he couldn’t support his family if he went back to Pakistan. He said it would be better to kill himself here to show people his bad situation. I haven’t seen him again after that.
A Kurdish man aged about 25 cut his legs with a razor. They were deep cuts and there was blood everywhere. He thought that if he cut himself they wouldn’t send him back. They took him to Healthcare. 3 days later he was released! But I’m not sure why.
Another man was a big man from Afghanistan and he has 6 children. He also had a ticket to return and he really didn’t want to go back. He had a lot of proof about his situation in Afghanistan, but still they didn’t believe him. So when his case failed and he saw there was nothing for him here, he said “ok, I will go back to my country.” But when they came for him, he changed his mind and said “no, I don’t want to go.” He didn’t eat for one week. He put a razor from his shaver in his mouth and cut himself, but there wasn’t too much blood, so they just washed his mouth. He said many bad things, and he threatened to kill himself, so they put him in a small room with no windows and no other people for 2 days.
One man had been in this country for 30 years! He said, “how can they send me back? I AM this country! I MADE this country!”
hi
I have posted your blog on the FB page Open Access Now which is about a campaign started in Italy and going European on the situation related to detention centres for migrants. In Italy nobody is allowed to enter and visit detainees. Today there is a meeting in London.
Your initiative of starting a blog is very important, Ill keep following
good luck!
paola
Wow it is so sad that people can’t have visitors. I’m going to write a post about how much seeing my visitors helped me and stopped me going crazy in there.