Photos of demonstration at Campsfield

I don't know what the police are told and whether he was just winding me up or what but one of the cops seemed to think that people don't end up in Campsfield unless they've done something wrong. I think he meant that they're over here illegally (for a start) and then they get picked up for some little crime and they've got no papers so they get banged up in Campsfield. Who knows anything about that? One website says that 89% (I think) of the people inside there are seeking asylum, the other 11% are presumably just awaiting deportation for plain old overstaying visas and that. (I wonder if all the Americans, Australians, Canadians etc that have overstayed their visas here are getting worried about this stuff yet or if they're confident that the system's racist enough not to lock them up.)

If people have committed a crime, they should be arrested, charged and prosecuted in the normal way. In some ways this would be preferable compared to the treatment of the Campsfield detainees, who have committed no crime (seeking asylum is not a crime, but a basic and very necessary human right). They have committed no crime but, unlike a proper criminal, do not know how long their sentence might be, nor what kind of nightmare comes at the end of it. In this situation people commit suicide, as in the terrible case of Ramazan Komluca yesterday. The Home Office, in a typical display of official callousness, would neither "confirm nor deny" the circumstances of his death. This barbaric system must stop.

Support the hunger strikers!

Come to the demonstration at Campsfield tomorrow (Wednesday)!