Our statement in solidarity

AVID is in solidarity with all those standing up to systemic racism and injustice, following the murder of George Floyd by US police last week. 

 

As the name George Floyd has reverberated across the US and the UK, we are reminded of the families who have lost loved ones here in the UK as a result of abuse and mistreatment. “I can’t breathe” are horrifyingly chilling words to hear once again, as they were also the words of Jimmy Mubenga who died pleading for help while guards restrained him on an airplane on the runway at Heathrow. He was 46 years old and had five children. No one has been charged for Jimmy Mubenga’s death. 

 

In 2017, a BBC Panorama documentary exposed abuse at Brook House detention centre near Gatwick airport. Undercover footage showed people in detention subject to both physical and verbal abuse by guards at the centre.  Three years on, a public inquiry is now underway into events at Brook House. This has only come about after a significant legal challenge. 

 

Events in the UK, like those in the USA, are not unique or isolated. They are very much part of a wider systemic racism. For all who are living with the fear and uncertainty that detention – and the threat of detention - brings, we will not be silent. We stand with you.

3rd June 2020

Publication date: 
Thursday, June 4, 2020