In Sunday’s Observer, Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary, speaks about Yarl’s Wood detention centre: ‘The continued problems of holding pregnant women, trafficking victims and people who may have been tortured need to be investigated and ended immediately.’
We welcome this announcement and hope to hear from other parties that they are also committed to ending the detention of those who have fled torture and sexual violence. Too many vulnerable women are locked up when they come to this country to seek safety.
Yvette Cooper also pledged an independent investigation into Serco’s management of Yarl’s Wood detention centre in the wake of the allegations of sexual abuse at the centre. Women for Refugee Women says: ‘It is important to investigate the management of the centre, but more important not to detain vulnerable women in the first place.’
Please keep up the pressure for change by signing the Women for Refugee Women petition and making sure that all politicians know that women who seek asylum should not be detained.