Yarl's Wood Detention Centre closed for families

Saskia Iloba putting a brave face inside at Yarl's Wood detention centre

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The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has announced that the government will be closing the family wing at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre in Befordshire.

The detention centre is a place children and mothers from Rochdale have been locked up in.

In July last year (2009) Rochdale Online reported on the conditions faced by a Rochdale family in the immigration detention centre:

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news/27047/hopeful-smiles-from-behind-the-barbed-wire-fence

The Iloba family were a shining light, a shining example of a family coming from nothing and ending up being a great example to the community they served. Their experience should embarrass each and every one of us. 

The family were arrested in an overnight raid on their Rochdale home and shipped off to the notorious Yarl's Wood Immigration Centre.

The first attempt at deportation the family were ordered to board a coach to the airport - two of the children refused outright. The Immigration Officials had to gain a court order to use force!

The second time they were given 15 minutes to pack up and if they didn't, they would be 'bundled' onto a coach.  This was the family's worst nightmare - they were being forced to go back to a country that they genuinely believed was a danger to them. 

Those in Rochdale who knew the family have never heard from them again.