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Campaigners targeted the Labour Party conference yesterday to demand the closure of the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre.
The Bedfordshire site holds asylum-seekers and other immigrants prior to their enforced deportation — it has been the scene of suicides, sexual exploitation, hunger strikes and riots.
Its victims include Manuel Bravo, an asylum seeker from Angola living in Leeds. He was detained there with his 13-year-old son. Manuel hanged himself knowing that his death would prevent the deportation of his son because he was under 18 and could not be deported without an adult relative.
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports
