From Salford to Yarl’s Wood: sponsored cycle against asylum seeker destitution
Article published: Wednesday, July 25th 2012
Two women will raise funds for destitute asylum seekers this weekend by cycling 130 miles from Dallas Court Reporting Centre in Salford to Yarl’s Wood detention centre, Bedfordshire.
Photograph: Graeme Lamb Media
Their path will follow the same route travelled by many members of female asylum seeker mutual support group WAST who have been transferred to Yarl’s Wood in Home Office vans prior to their deportation.
The women, Vicky Marsh and Hannah Berry, say they are cycling to raise awareness of the unjust treatment, exploitation and violence many women asylum seekers face in Britain, and to raise £2,000 for WAST’s destitution fund.
Coronation Street actor Julie Hesmondleigh, who stars as Hayley Cropper in the long-running soap, and local Trafford MP Kate Green, are supporting the ride alongside members of the trade union Unite.
In a statement, a WAST spokesperson said many of their members “have experienced gender/sexual violence and trauma in their countries and then faced further trauma in the asylum process instead of emotional and practical support.”
Criticising the fairness of the government’s assessment process for refugees, they claimed that “the majority of asylum claims are refused by Home Office case workers who are working to targets – as testified by the fact that 31 per cent of initial decisions are overturned on appeal.”
Pointing to swinging cuts to legal aid which have slashed the ability of many people to access decent advice and representation, they said “many women are made destitute” as a result of being cut off from money and housing.
Asylum seekers are forbidden from working, an they added that many are left “vulnerable to exploitation and further violence in their struggle to survive” or made to survive on meagre food vouchers only redeemable at a small number of shops.
Richard Goulding
The ride will set off at 5pm Friday 27 July from Dallas Court Reporting Centre in Salford, on a three-day cycle to Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedford, the government detention centre for women – donate via paypal here
More: Manchester, Migration and asylum, News
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