Aaden*, a young man supported by JRS UK’s Detention Outreach team, was detained in Harmondsworth IRC for nearly two years.
Sr Kathryn SSC visited him towards the end of his time in detention, and shares a little about this experience here.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I was born and brought up in Liverpool, and joined the Columban Sisters after my A-levels in 1964. I liked them for their simplicity of life.
I was trained in London and went to London University, and then I was sent to Uganda for 40 years, where I taught in a secondary school in the north of the country. After that I spent some time in Scotland and Italy, and then finally came back to London in January 2023.
Is that when you first started volunteering? How did you first hear of JRS?
Oh, everybody knows JRS!
I first met JRS when I was in Uganda – Uganda has always welcomed refugees from other places in Africa. Because of the conflicts in South Sudan, many Sudanese came into the north of Uganda. There were Jesuits working in the refugee camps there.
When I came back to the UK, I knew I wanted to work with people seeking safety because I’ve seen the situation of life elsewhere in the world and I can understand why people move.
What were your first impressions of detention?
I suppose I did know that detention was like prison – but it was really like prison. I found it quite hard. It’s a tall building, with box rooms. Security is super strict, and you’re always escorted everywhere. When you go in as a visitor, they pat you down and make sure you’re not carrying anything with you.
I was visiting a man named Aaden*, a man in his 30s who had been in detention for more than two years.
At our first meeting, Aaden’s uncle was also visiting at the same time, and so the three of us had a very easy going conversation, and the hour passed very quickly.
In our other meetings, I would tell him something of myself, and he would tell me something of himself. Aaden was very good at football, and loved painting, so he would tell me about his artwork.
Can you tell us more about Aaden?
Aaden had been in the country since primary school, and had been educated up to college level, which is when he got into trouble and ended up in Harmondsworth, under threat of deportation.
Detention was not the right place for him. Aaden has been diagnosed with a severe mental health condition. Staff in detention are not equipped to deal with people with complex needs; at one point while detained, he ceased taking his medication for over a year and suffered a catastrophic deterioration in his mental health. He never sought out support, he did not appeal any of the Home Office decisions, and he did not read paperwork. JRS noticed him in detention and over a long period of time, built up rapport and trust and were finally able to engage legal representation.
Sadly, Aaden was, without notice, released into street homelessness, with no support in place, in the middle of an extreme mental health crisis. Within a matter of days, he had come to the attention of the police and back into the system he went, back to prison, and from there to detention again.
With the help of JRS UK’s Detention Outreach team, Aaden was released from detention. When he was released, he was put into Home Office accommodation, but it was outside London – which was a shame because he was then cut off from the circle of people he could rely on for support. No-one was there to help him. JRS UK accompanied him to hospital to request urgent mental health support, but he was deemed not quite ill enough.
With time, his condition did deteriorate, and eventually, after a long period of not taking his medication, he disappeared for a while, making his way back to London to where he had been brought up. During this episode he failed to contact his probation officer and so was recalled to prison. Back into the system he went, always falling through the gaps. It is hard to see him there.
I don’t think Britain is treating Aaden right. He hasn’t received the support he needs for his mental illness, and until he does I think he will end up in prison and in detention over and over again. He’s been in the country since he was a young child, and he’s now in his 30s. He has spent his life here. To deport him to a place he doesn’t know is absolutely ridiculous. He really is a nice young man, and his life is just passing him by because he doesn’t know how to deal with his life.
Do you have any other reflections on detention?
I don’t think there’s anything positive about detention. People are side lined and forgotten about, until one day maybe a decision is made.
I don’t see there’s anything constructive or creative or helpful about detention. It is prison people are deprived of their freedoms, they have no say in how long they’re there for, what time they go to bed, or when the lights are on or off, who they mix with.
It’s prison under another name, and yet the majority of people in there haven’t broken the law. Or, if they have, they have already served time in prison, and often need real support, like Aaden. I think detention is just a parking space for people, and I don’t see the point.
You know, I think a lot about the money that they’ve spent on building and staffing these places. If they could channel some of that money into the people who are detained, and helping them get representation, the money would be much better spent.
Visiting and accompanying Aaden, and the experience of seeing detention centres, has definitely awakened in me a greater interest in politics. I think it’s just the common decency of every human being – that we bother that our neighbour is in a good space and is okay and is looked after. We want people to get the best that they can.
This blog was originally published in JRS UK’s quarterly postal newsletter, Together. In this issue, we explore the realities of immigration detention, the experiences of those held inside, and JRS UK’s work in accompanying, serving, and advocating for them.
Read more in our latest edition of Together
