Dignity Not Detention: Solidarity gathering at Dungavel Detention Centre

Archbishop Nolan with J&P Scotland campaigners gathered outside Dungavel Detention Centre

Source: Justice and Peace Scotland

On Sunday, 15 June, Father's Day, almost 40 people braved the rain and joined our peaceful solidarity gathering outside Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre under the banner of 'Dignity Not Detention'.

Led by Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow and joined by Justice & Peace Scotland members, supporters and long-time collaborators, we reflected emotively and prayerfully on the injustice of indefinite immigration detention in the UK.

The UK is the only country in Europe that detains people in prison-like conditions without a time limit. Some inside Dungavel are held indefinitely for something as minor as working more hours than allowed on a visa. For this, they are stripped of liberty, cut off from their communities, relationships, and families, with no idea when they will be released.

Archbishop Nolan reminded us yesterday that when someone goes through the criminal justice system and receives a prison sentence, they at least know how long they'll be held. Those in immigration detention do not even have that information. He called for an immigration and asylum system that recognises the human dignity of all, that sees every person, citizen or not, as a brother or sister in Christ, and refuses to deprive someone of liberty simply because they are a foreigner.

On a day when so many were celebrating fatherhood, we held in our hearts the fathers behind the barbed wire of Dungavel and all those harmed by a system that values control over compassion.

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Justice and Peace Scotland: www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/