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Detainees live "like slaves" at immigration centre, says human rights lawyer Marius Seaka
Last week, Guestlist had a chat with human rights lawyer and law firm business owner Marius Seaka of Calices Solicitors. It was not an interview as such but an informal chat about immigration and asylum seekers.
As we talked, we moved on to the topic of immigration centres, specifically the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre. He told us the conditions there “are despicable”. He has seen a suicide attempt right before his eyes, from another detainee begging him to take him out of the centre.
Some of his clients also revealed that the conditions in the centre are truly poor and deplorable, it is nothing like want you see on their website.
The Brook House Immigration Removal Centre even made headlines in 2017 for their poor services. They were described as a place of "chaos, incompetence and abuse" by the BBC.
In a statement following the startling revelations made by the BBC, a spokesman for the Home Office said: "We are clear that all detainees should be treated with dignity and respect and we expect G4S to carry out a thorough investigation into these allegations and that all appropriate action be taken."
However, it seems like little has changed since then. Seaka described the overnight detention room at the centre similar to the old slave house of Goree in Senegal. The Island of Goree used to the be the open door for deporting slaves from country to country during slavery. He told us, “It is modern slavery..they treat them like slaves because this is not their country”.
Seaka believes not a lot of people talk about the issues still surrounding dentition centres, which is why raising awareness on this subject is so much more important and we hope we did just that with this article.
