Raul is an 18 year old Somali man who has been detained in Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre in Lincolnshire since 1st August and is being held until ‘further notice‘. This September he was due to start a degree in sports coaching at Sunderland University but was arrested and locked up in the immigration prison.
Despite the dangerous situation in his homeland, Raul is being criminalised for fleeing Somalia and seeking asylum in the UK.
Raul has said from within the the centre, 'We feel like criminals despite just wanting to come here because it is not safe in our country.’
Raul’s Situation
Raul fled war torn Somalia with his younger brother when he was 12 and has lived in the North East of England ever since. He has no family in Somalia and has made a life for himself here with family members; he has forged friendships and represented his school in athletics and played for local football teams. While studying for his A Levels, he was told: ‘someone wants to talk to you’; he was then arrested, handcuffed and locked in a police cell for three days. He was then temporarily released and then re-arrested four weeks later and taken to Morton Hall, where prisoners are locked in their cells from 8.30pm to 8am and again between 1-2pm and 5-6.30pm.
Immigration is No Crime - End Detention!
UKBA acknowledges that “detention must be used sparingly, and for the shortest possible period necessary.” However, immigration detention in Britain is without time limit: Britain has derogated from the EU Returns Directive that sets a maximum time limit of 18 months. According to UKBA statistics, 255 people had been detained for over a year as of 31 December 2010. Of these, 65 had been detained for over 2 years. This is an increase of 70% in less than two years. And Fight Racism! Fight Imperilaism! North East has recently received phone-calls from several Somali men who have been held in immigration detention for between one month and five years. People are being imprisoned for purely administrative reasons, with no charge against them, no trial and often no solicitor. There are currently several countries – including Somalia, Iraq and Zimbabwe - to which asylum seekers cannot generally be deported due to difficulties in obtaining travel documents and the dangerous situation in those countries. Yet Somali men are still being held for long periods of time.
Since Raul has been in Morton Hall someone has tried to jump off the roof and others have stabbed themselves with forks. This is the desperation forced on to detainees who have no idea when or if they will be released and for what crime they are being imprisoned. In 2010, 183 people were hospitalised as a result of self harm in immigration detention and 1,467 people were deemed ‘at risk’.
