December and the festive period were a much needed opportunity to pause and reset after another busy year at Right to Remain. As we now pick up the pace and launch into our plans for 2026, we’ve been reflecting on the solidarity and relationships built throughout 2025.

Every crisis our community has experienced, ranging from the Rwanda deportation panic in 2024 to our #FreeFatou campaign, when one of us was detained, has proved shared knowledge and trust is an essential ingredient for ‘meeting the moment’. Courage and action do not come from a vacuum, but arise from everyday solidarity that affirms and bolsters our agency. And everyday solidarity grows from connections and relationships. 

Our National Day of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention on 18 October 2025 was a highlight of our relationship-building, and also provided an opportunity to rehearse for future solidarity in action when a new, unexpected crisis might hit us. Not only did people travel from across the country to join us and the No 2 Hassockfield team outside Derwentside IRC in County Durham, but there was just as much noise and action through local solidarity events across the UK, from Glasgow to Oxford. We want to take this opportunity to thank all our friends and allies who organised these powerful displays of solidarity, enabling our community to feel stronger, together. 

In Leeds, the local Anti-Raids folk teamed up with The David Oluwale Memorial Association, placing themselves in the city centre with a stall offering information, crafts and food to anyone interested. 

Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) marked the National Day of Action by organising a solidarity meal for their community and supporters. A buffet of nourishing savoury and sweet dishes was served, alongside short talks, a quiz, and conversations in solidarity with those who have previously been detained in UK immigration removal centres. 

The team at Boycott Bloody Insurance, a campaign to expose the hidden world of of insurers underpinning the UK’s abusive migrant detention and border violence industry, facilitated a workshop on the web of connections between insurance and detention, as well as the genocide in Gaza and fossil fuel expansion. 

In Oxford, the Keep Campsfield Closed Campaign (CKCC) hosted a full day of activities at Fusion Arts. They shared key information about Campsfield House IRC, which, having been closed down in 2018, reopened on 1 December 2025 despite much backlash from the campaign group and local community. Their Day of Action included a panel with CKCC members, lunch, crafts, discussion and a documentary screening.

Our friends at Rainbow Migration teamed up with Beyond Detention to host a free placard-making and letter-writing event in London, ahead of the Day of Action on 18 October. Attendees were able to write letters of solidarity to people in detention, which were translated and distributed to people detained at Yarls Wood IRC and Derwentside IRC. During their event, they also screened a short film about the experiences of LGBTQI+ people in detention, followed by a discussion on the experiences of the people Beyond Detention support in Yarls Wood. You can read a write up of their event here.

And finally, up in Scotland, our friends at Scottish Detainee Visitors (SDV) came together with Justice and Peace Scotland and Glasgow Solidarity Stall to host an in person event on how to campaign against detention, including talks and speakers with lived experience of detention, information-sharing, and creative activities like badge-making and letter writing to people currently detained. Kate Alexander, Director of SDV said “It felt really timely – there was a real sense of relief at being in a room with people who stood against what’s happening now.”

Andrew Smith, Campaigns, Communications and Events Coordinator at Justice and Peace Scotland, said about the event: 

The terrible toll that immigration detention can take on the mental health of those caught up in this cruel and unjust system proved a sobering takeaway from our Scottish event.

Jointly organised by Justice & Peace Scotland, Scottish Detainee Visitors and Glasgow Solidarity Stall, the gathering in support  of The National Day of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention was held at Refuweegee’s offices in Glasgow and attracted around 30 people. They heard first-hand about  the injustices and impacts of detention, as well as writing supportive messages on specially created postcards to be shared with those currently being held.

Keynote speaker Ronnie Tagwireyi gave a moving and emotional talk about his extensive experiences of the immigration system in the UK – the only country in Europe where individuals can be detained indefinitely.

Born in Zimbabwe, he first claimed asylum two decades ago. This led to several periods in Dungavel, Scotland’s only immigration detention centre, where the uncertainties created by indefinite detention – which studies have shown adversely impacts mental health – led to him being medicalised for depression. This was all entirely unnecessary ill-treatment as Ronnie recently was granted indefinite leave to remain.

From local organising to national coordination, the National Day of Solidarity 2025 showed what can be achieved when we come together in radical solidarity with each other. As we move into 2026, building and sustaining these relationships will be even more essential, as we navigate yet more cruel and dangerous Government policies that seek to rip through our communities. This is something we will explore at our Annual Gatherings in Birmingham and Leeds in February: how we can harness our collective power to advance the migration justice movement, how to step up and how to ready ourselves to ‘meet the moment’. If you would like to join us, register your interest below.