Nearly 200 people gathered Saturday 21st March in Bedford town centre, than heading to Yarl's Wood immigration prison, demanding its closure. Yarl's Wood has 405 capacity and holds single women and families with children. The building of a new immigration prison, next to Yarl's Wood, has just been approved, to hold 500 single men.
There were many asylum seekers and ex-detainees in the protest, alongside anti-racist groups, students and campaigners. Most people came from London, but there were Bedford based campaigners and people from Birmingham, South Wales, Leicester, Oxford, Brighton...
There were also lots of police to cordon the protest.
see also: Yarl's Wood 2009
London NoBorders, Campaign Against Immigration Controls, SOAS Detainee Support Group, No-one is Illegal, Campaign To Stop Arbitrary Detention at Yarl’s Wood, Campaign to Close Campsfield, Legal Action for Women, All African Women's Group, Communites of Resistance and Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Detention call: For An End to Immigration Detention - Saturday 21st March 2009