Samphire Film – ‘Voices After Detention’

‘Voices After Detention’ is an exciting new short film by Samphire made in collaboration with Bamidele, Hamed and Colonel who have all spent time in immigration detention. The film highlights the negative impact of detention on the lives of people detained. Debating detention Tomorrow (10 September) parliament will debate the inquiry report into the impact and […]

Immigration Bail and Home Office shenanigans

Christine Oliver, the Ex-Detainee Project Manager at Samphire writes about her latest bail hearing I represented a detainee at his bail hearing the other week. It’s been a while since I’ve done an application for bail and the shenanigans of the Home Office in their efforts to keep people in detention at a cost of […]

Fleeing Syria: an asylum seeker’s story

When a man fled the war in Syria, he was met with street homelessness in Italy and then detention in the UK. He told DDVG his story. The conflict I am a farm worker from a village with hills around it just outside Dar’a around two hours South of Damascus by car. I have a […]

Visitor’s perspective: Respect British tradition of inclusiveness

Margaret, a former visitor at DDVG, thinks that immigration detention conflicts with Britain’s traditions of inclusion in the community I became a DDVG volunteer around seven years ago because I felt that immigration detainees had a raw deal. I think that the UK’s tradition of inclusion in the community does not fit with imprisoning those […]

Human Rights are for you

For Blog Action Day 2013 be selfish and demand your human rights, writes DDVG caseworker, Fraser. Human rights have been in the news recently and, not for the first time, they have taken a battering. The UK Home Secretary Theresa May announced in September that the Conservative Party plans to scap the Human Rights Act, […]

Why I’m running a half marathon for immigration detainees

Liana Wood on what motivated her to sign up to a half marathon to raise funds for DDVG I’ve been associated with this charity for a long time. Visiting detainees at Dover Immigration Removal Centre when I was a teenager helped me to understand more about the circumstances in which people come to this country, […]

Casework insights: no one wins

Removing immigrants impoverishes Britain’s culture, writes Fraser Paterson, DDVG’s new caseworker I am a new caseworker at DDVG and now that I am in my second week of work I thought I’d share my first impressions after a few meetings with detainees in Dover. Unexpectedly, my first thought has been what our current immigration system […]

‘As other human beings on this soil’: Joe’s story

Joe recently shared his experiences of detention and destitution in the UK, at DDVG‘s Ex-Detainee Conference. This is his story. My name is Joe. I would have been due for release from prison on 22 July 2010, but then I was held under immigration powers, even while my deportation wasn’t imminent. I spent ten months […]

Father’s Day for asylum seekers: four fathers’ stories

Conditions imposed on asylum seekers in the UK make parenting almost impossible. People are detained indefinitely in removal centres, even while the Home Office can’t remove them. Asylum seekers initially refused by the Home Office, if they are released, are banned from working and made to live under Section 4 or without support. Four fathers […]

First impressions: internship at Dover Detainee Visitor Group

One of our intern’s offers her perspectives of DDVG, the work caseworkers and volunteers do, and the experiences of the detainees she has met. My name is Cecile. Having finished my BA in International Relations and Politics I am now doing an internship at the NGO’s office. I have different tasks assigned to me, but […]

Detained in the UK

A blog by Samphire about asylum & immigration detention and destitution in the UK.

Human stories