The demonstration took place took place on Saturday outside the Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre
20:22, 18 Oct 2025Updated 20:23, 18 Oct 2025
Crowds gathered at the gates of a Durham detention centre in a display of solidarity with migrant communities(Image: simone rudolphi)
Campaigners gathered outside a North East immigration detention centre calling for the release of those inside. The demonstration was led by campaigners who have previous experience of the UK’s immigration and detention system.
The demonstration took place on Saturday outside the Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in County Durham, the UK’s only immigration detention centre exclusively for women. Organised by ‘The No to Hassockfield Campaign’, ‘These Walls Must Fall’ and ‘Right to Remain’, the event brought together more than 100 people from cities including Newcastle, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield.
As part of a national day of action to end immigration detention, the day was intended to highlight the solidarity with people subject to the immigration system in the UK. The crowd heard speeches highlighting the experiences faced by women in Derwentside, many of whom are survivors of gender-based violence, trafficking, and exploitation.
Speakers called the experience of being inside Derwentside “trauma”, “depression” and “inhuman”. They said women who come out of detention are “never the same” after the experience, and highlighted the issue of indefinite detention, which means people in Derwentside can be imprisoned without knowing when they’ll be released.
Maggy Moyo, campaign organiser at lived experience campaign group These Walls Must Fall, said: “Today was important for us to show solidarity to women detained not only in Derwentside but in many other detention centres. Detention compromises people’s mental health permanently, it’s not a policy but a punishment tool that our government uses to punish already vulnerable communities.”
Crowds gathered at the gates of a Durham detention centre in a display of solidarity with migrant communities(Image: simone rudolphi)
Organisers aimed to highlight the nature of detention and send a message to the women inside that they are not alone. Dr Helen Groom from the No to Hassockfield campaign, said: “The protest was vibrant, peaceful and loud. We made sure that the women imprisoned in Derwentside know that they are not forgotten. We will not stop protesting against Derwentside IRC whilst it remains open.
“Whilst this government and right-wing agitators ramp up the hostile environment, we remain steadfast in campaigning to shut it down. In a world riven with conflict it is no surprise that vulnerable and desperate people are seeking sanctuary.
“We would all do the same if we were in their shoes. More than fifty per cent of people on the move across the world are women and children. They face violence at every stage of their journeys and when they finally arrive in Europe where they hope to find safety they are faced with appalling levels of racism and institutional violence.”
Campaigners from women’s group 4Wings, in Liverpool, who’d been preparing to attend the event were told news that one of their members, a trafficking survivor, had been detained and taken to Derwentside. Demonstrators chanted “set her free” as the woman spoke from inside the detention centre on speaker phone to the crowd, telling them the women inside could hear their songs and chants.
Eiri Ohtani, Director, Right to Remain added: “Migrant communities have endured months of rising hostility from this government. Whether it’s targeting delivery drivers; enforcing the cruel and unworkable one-in-one-out policy for people seeking safety; gleefully sharing videos of violent workplace raids or stripping away refugee family reunion, none of it has done anything to improve the life of anyone in the UK. All it has done is forced racialised and migrant communities to live in more fear, while emboldening extremists.
“Our day of solidarity shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. We believe migrants in the UK shouldn’t have to live under the constant threat of detention centres like Derwentside. Many of us are already working to build an alternative system that works better for all of us, where people who are trying to build a life here are welcomed with care and compassion.”
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