Who are we?
End Heathrow Immigration Detention is a group that is campaigning for the permanent closure of the Heathrow detention centres. If the third runway at Heathrow goes ahead, it will displace the existing Heathrow detention centres and the Home Office intends for a replacement centre to be built in the local area. EHID formed as a response to challenge these government plans and we see this moment as a key opportunity to resist the further expansion of the detention estate.
Our demands
- that the government abandons its plans to build another costly, detention centre; and
- that the government commits to closing Harmondsworth and Colnbrook centre permanently
Detention is racist and expensive. Every year, up to 1,015 individuals – predominantly people of colour – are locked up in the Heathrow detention centres, ripped apart from their families, friends and communities. Once there, they are locked up indefinitely, without trial and in miserable conditions. Furthermore, the cost of running the Heathrow centres is huge, amounting to £181 million over 8 years. This is an unacceptable waste of public money. These centres have to close.
We strongly oppose the re-building of the mega-detention centre, and are joining with the local community to demand that the government abandon these plans and commit to closing Harmondsworth and Colnbrook forever.
We also join with locals in opposing the third runway. The UK is already a main contributor to climate change and airport expansion will worsen this. Climate change affects us all, but it is the global poor who are hit the hardest. Migrants from the poorest countries are also disproportionately targeted by the racist detention and deportation regime once in the UK.