‘We have stood outside detention centres to visit friends who were locked inside. We have listened to people who don’t know when they will be released, who are separated from their families and who are struggling with the uncertainty of what comes next. We cannot simply watch the government build more detention capacity and call that progress. Campsfield and Haslar detention centres should not be expanded. We need to learn from the harm people have already experienced, not create more places for that harm to continue.’ Marcia – These Walls Must Fall campaigner

We don’t often organise petitions at Right to Remain.

We usually turn to solidarity, education and collaboration across different communities to stand together against injustice. But as the government pushes for major expansion of immigration detention, we see a petition as another tool to make our collective opposition more visible and harder to ignore, bring more people into the conversation and talking about detention and enforcement and the harm it causes across our communities. 

Detention harms people, families and communities. It can seriously damage someone’s physical and mental health. But it goes further than that. Detention divides families, it deprives people of their partners, friends and colleagues often without warning and with no clear end date. Communities are left carrying the fear, uncertainty and disruption detention creates.

At a time when attitudes to immigration are deeply divided, this government feels the need to prove their own anti-migrant credentials. We hope to force the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to change direction: stop expanding detention, stop mimicking the far right and start to challenge them.

We need you to stand with us. Sign the petition, share the petition and start talking to your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and community about how detention and enforcement affects us all.

We have also created this flyer to promote our petition. You can download it from the link below or contact Esther, esther@righttoremain.org.uk to send you physical copies.