On Friday 5th August anti-detention campaigners held a small, but noisy, protest at Colnbrook immigration prison, near Heathrow airport, where two migrant prisoners apparently killed themselves in less than a month. With a megaphone, whistles, a vuvuzela and pots and pans, they made themselves heard to the migrants locked up in Colnbrook, as well as in the adjacent Harmondsworth. Detainees shouted back 'freedom, freedom' and other angry, desperate slogans. See photos here.

A 25 year old male detainee being held in Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow died on Sunday morning, 31st July. The name/nationality of the man is unknown. FreeMovement have been in contact with detainees but they have been too distressed to speak coherently.

Meanwhile a 35 year old man was found hanged this morning, 2nd August, at Campfield detention centre near Oxford, reports The Guardian.

The two men are the latest in a long line of fatalities at the hands of the UKBA. Their deaths come less than a month after that of another male detainee at Colnbrook, Muhammed Shuket.

21st June 2011
For immediate release

Anti-deportation campaigners are blockading Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres in a last-minute attempt to stop the forcible deportation of Iraqi refugees to Baghdad on a specially chartered flight scheduled to leave London this evening.

30 angry protesters from No Borders, Stop Deportation and other groups are blocking the joint entrance to the two detention centres near Heathrow airport. Six of them have encased their arms in glass and plastic tubes attached to concrete barrels, while others are holding banners and shouting slogans against the 'brutal deportation machine.'

Three coaches carrying over 30 of the deportees to the airport have not
been able to leave the complex. Another 30 are supposed to be taken at the same time from Brook House detention centre at Gatwick airport and Campsfield House in Oxfordshire. In total, it is expected that the flight, scheduled to leave an undisclosed airport at 11pm today, will carry
between 60 and 70 deportees, accompanied by twice as many private security guards and immigration officers.

Update at 8.30pm

Currently 5 Reliance vans are in the Colnbrook/Harmondsworth complex preparing to transport the detainees out of the rear entrance of the complex. It is unclear where these detainees will be taken.

It is understood that the Immigration Advisory Service has obtained an injunction against the flight but it is unknown whether this applies to some or all of the potential deportees.

The blockade of the front entrance continues. Police are now on the scene.

Final update, 9pm

Great news! It has been confirmed that this evening's charter flight has
been cancelled.

The blockade has now finished and none of the blockaders have been arrested.

stopdeportation press relesase, 22 October 2009:
A magistrates judge has ruled that police acted unlawfully when arresting six anti-deportation campaigners who were blockading Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow airport, on 12th May, 2009, to try and prevent Iraqi refugees from being forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan on a specially chartered flight.[1]

Sitting at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court, judge Jane Wright concluded
that "the exclusive aim" of giving the order under Section 14 of the
Public Order Act by the senior police officer present at the scene,
Inspector Beattie, was "to facilitate the deportation of a number of
people to Iraq without further ado."[2]