Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group
Refugee Tales Walk 9-13th July 2025
Walking in solidarity with refugees and migrants who will be sharing and spreading their stories of migration; challenging attitudes, raising awareness and promoting a culture of equality and fairness.
I work as a Campaigns Organiser for MP Jeremy Corbyn with the community of Islington North, building a different kind of world from the grassroots. I have first hand experience of visiting countries in conflict, with 10 visits to Afghanistan, all of my Afghan friends are now either internally displaced or living as refugees abroad. I've previously served deputy leader of Hastings Council, during which I was a part of Migrants Network and City of Sanctuary. When boats of refugees and migrants arrived on Hastings shores, I used my position to personally welcome them, while also being a witness to Boarder Force and challenging police protocol.
It is important to campaign against wars and aggressive foreign policy, which is one of the the main causes of displacement, connecting Government spending on weapons, for wars backed by our decision makers, who know conflict causes refugees.
The walk is inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, using the age old skill of story telling while on a pilgrimage. Stories will be written up into a book published by Comma Press. Witnessing and raising up stories of displacement is a way of breaking down boundaries and fostering understanding. The walk will spread word and expand the community of those resisting the impacts of displacement.
Funds will go to Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, who started in 1995 when people were detained at a small holding centre near Gatwick Airport. The following year, Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre was built, and we became a registered charity. Their vision is for a society where people whose right to live in the UK is being questioned are treated with humanity and justice by all. Their mission is to improve the welfare and well-being of people affected by the immigration detention system through friendship, support and advocacy for fair treatment while calling for positive change and an end to indefinite immigration detention.
A second detention facility at Gatwick, Brook House, opened in March 2009. Brook House operates alongside Tinsley House, and both centres are currently run by Serco. GDWG supports people held in both centres.
GDWG has around 70 volunteers, who befriend people in detention through weekly visits. The Group believes that each person in detention has a right to be treated with respect and humanity. They have a small number of staff who co-ordinate the volunteer team and provide support and advocacy to those detained.
GDWG use their insights into the experience of detention to try to improve conditions, inform policy and challenge negative attitudes towards people who are indefinitely detained. We work with a network of other organisations who help those in detention such as the Association for Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID), the Detention Monitoring Group and Detention Forum.