Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Colnbrook's despair - able young men driven to suicide

VOICE | 11.05.2006 15:20 | Health | Migration | Repression | London

We are still unsure of Tariq's condition. We urge all concerned individuals and organisations to contact the Home Office and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre and ask for clarification of his condition and furthermore put pressure on them to end to the barbaric practice of detention and deportation of refugees.

- Serco (For Colnbrook), Press Office: 01344 386 300
- Home Office Press Office: 020 7035 3535

 voice_refugee_forum@dalitstan.org

Colnbrook's despair - able young men driven to suicide


Mr.Tariq Rashid, Colnbrook,c-wing,ground floor room 2. Has been in immigration detention for 19 months,and 2 weeks. He had begged for an asylum that was refused, and has remained in detention since he has applied for bail, and has gone for bail hearings 4 times,but he was refused them all.


He then begged to be sent back to Iraq and has filled voluntary return forms 10 times, but the home office reply was that his country was too dangerous to remove him to.


So he was abandoned in detention,and after receiving yet another monthly report telling him "your case has been reviewed and it has been decided that you remain in detention till......" he sank into a deep depression and yesterday 11th May 2006 at 8:45.p.m, after looking at his family's pictures, he went to the office collected a shaving razor, broke the stem and extracted the razor, and was cutting himself when his friend walked in. his friend managed to prevent him from completing the cut across his neck,but not before he had opened a 6 inch gash from the left side of his neck down to his breast bone.


He bled so much the officers had to spread plastic bags on the ground to prevent permanent damage to the carpet.this happened in full view of detainees. the nurses were called and he was quickly strechered out and taken to hospital outside. Mr.L who has also been in detention for 2 years,broke down crying.


The aftermath
This morning,at 8:30am an as yet unidentified Jamaican tried to jump from the second floor, but the alarm was raised by other detainees who managed to restrain him till the officers arrived. he has been placed on a "level 3, Suicide Watch".


Fifteen Minutes Later: Mr.****** (c-wing,first floor room 4) from IRAN, was found by his room mate hanging from the door handle, by his own bedsheet. he had
earlier tried to cut his throat with a razor,but his room mate had reported to the officers, but instead of counselling, he was locked up in solitary confinement, that further aggravated his psychological condition, and led to this second more determined attempt.


How many more deaths or attempts must the detainees see. The tension and anger in the whole center is palpable at the moment, inmates have witnessed three suicide attempts in 12 hours,and they have become desperate.


In retrospect to what happened on Sunday lunchtime, it is only a matter of time before the inmates that are not strong enough to commit suicide now summon up courage, or find other means to vent their simmering anger and desperation.


Last night alone the whole wing especially those currently on hungerstrikes were subject to a half hourly "suicide prevention check".


This is a sorry situation of able young men, driven to desperation and suicide, a proof of Colnbrook's despair.


Anon,
Colnbrook detainee


(Name and email address have been withheld)




Iraqi man attempts commits suicide at Colnbrook Detention centre
Hunger Strike Update - 11th May 2006

Last night, at 18:00 on 10/05/06, on C-Wing, Tareq Rashid from Iraq made serious attempt to self-harm removed plastic from shaving stick and cut his throat, stomach and chest. He has been taken to Hospital (we think it is Hillingdon Hospital). This occured after he was severely beaten by 8 security officers who have been also beating the hunger strikers. These include: Jenny Halliday - the General Manager, Stuart Martin and Craig Holker (a particularly viscious officer who takes pleasure in verbally abusing and punching and beating detainees including Romeo Dzamba who is on hunger strike)

Around 20 police officers went to Colnbrook and interviewed the Centre Manager Craig Thompson, as this is the second known suicide attempt in as many weeks, (a young Afghanistani man on D-Wing attempted suicide on Thursday 2nd May and all detainees were locked in their rooms).

We are still unsure of Tariq's condition. We urge all concerned individuals and organisations to contact the Home Office and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre and ask for clarification of his condition and furthermore put pressure on them to end to the barbaric practice of detention and deportation of refugees.

- Serco (For Colnbrook), Press Office: 01344 386 300
- Home Office Press Office: 020 7035 3535

 voice_refugee_forum@dalitstan.org

VOICE

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech