The group provides peer support as well as receiving information, advice and support from external guest speakers and professionals.
This network is led by Sahir House and our partner Heart of Glass. Our organisations are working together to enable and empower Many Hands One Heart members to become more confident in their sexuality/gender identity and less isolated in their communities and more knowledgeable about the UK asylum process.
If you are interested in joining our group, please contact Shereen Cowley on shereen.cowley@sahir.uk.com
We will be running two group meetings before Christmas on the 15th of October and the 13th of December, for registered members only.
Many Hands One Heart have teamed up with Rainbow Migration to join the campaign No Pride in Detention. Which believes that no LGBTQI+ person should be locked up indefinitely and subjected to LGBTQI-phobic bullying and abuse. The No Pride in Detention campaign highlights the specific violence faced by members of the LGBTQ+ community in immigration detention in the UK.
The UK has a particularly draconian immigration detention system which detains an estimated 27,000 people per year. People seeking refuge, EU nationals, and torture and trafficking survivors can be – and routinely are – picked up at the drop of a hat and detained for an indefinite amount of time. This lack of restriction on how long people can be kept in detention – known as Indefinite Detention – is an issue which has been campaigned on for many years across the sector. According to research by Detention Action, the cost of running the detention estate in 2013/14 was £164.4m. Independent research by Matrix Evidence has found that £76 million per year is wasted on the long-term detention of migrants who are ultimately released. In addition, between 2012 and 2015 the Home Office paid out almost £14 million in compensation following claims for unlawful detention. Detention Action also highlight the fact that since 2000, at least 49 people have died in UK detention centres, and incidents of self-harm are now recorded at more than one a day.
Rainbow Migration, the organisation leading the No Pride in Detention campaign, provide practical and emotional support for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum.
The campaign focusses on the particular impact of detention on LGBTQ+ people because detention deprives them of their freedom and cuts them off from support networks. They are often bullied and discriminated against by staff and others, which is not only re-traumatising but can lead to people going back into the closet for their own safety, making it harder for them to “prove” they are LGBTQ+ as part of their asylum claim.
The campaign stands for an end to detention in its entirety. It is unnecessary and expensive, and a violent experience for all people seeking refuge. We recognise that the LGBTQ+ community inhabit a particular intersection where both their immigration status and sexual orientation and or gender identity increase their risk of harm in the Hostile Environment generally, and in the detention system specifically. This is why we are joining with other refugee and migrant organisations and LGBTQ+ organisations to call on the wider LGBTQ+ community to stand in solidarity with our refugee siblings and call for an end to detention.
Watch this space to see how Many Hands One Heart have joined the campaign!
To find out more about how you can join the campaign as an individual or organisation take a look here https://www.rainbowmigration.org.uk/no-pride-in-detention/
Sources:
https://www.therefugeebuddyproject.org/blog/n5cn7k534rt99emopzz3398ammbpd1
https://detentionaction.org.uk/
