BritCits

Poem: Yarl's Wood (by Clare Pollard)

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5b8d-Clare-Pollard-Yarls-Wood

Clare writes :

'Yarl’s Wood. It even sounds nasty, doesn’t it? Like it’s a creepy fairytale, where Yarl is a wizard with a gnarled heart and mean fingers. Anyway, I started reading around. I read about the campaign against it started by Meltem Avcil, who was taken there with her mother when she was only 13.  She describes a place where women can’t get changed because they’re watched 24-hours by male guards; a place of roll-calls, barbed wire and barely opening windows. I read of indefinite detentions; inadequate medical care; 71p a day spending money and a culture of abuse that has led to staff being sacked for sexual assault.  I read of pointless deaths and senseless deportations.'

'These are women who have come to us, asking for hospitality and mercy. Women who have been victims of violence or rape or prejudice; who often fled their home-countries in fear of their lives. And the more I read about Yarl’s Wood, the more it seemed like a horrible spoof – a mocking enactment of their fears of abuse and injustice. A parody of their hopes for security and a new home.'

http://clarepollard.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/on-yarls-wood/

Russian icon of the Flight into Egypt