Campaign by Story
Imagine, a knock on the door and not knowing if it is immigration coming to take you away. Imagine your fear is realised and you are taken to detention, threatened with deportation and isolated from your community, friends and family. And imagine, you do not know when you will be released.
- What would you miss?
- Who would you miss?
- Where would you miss?
This Christmas, more than two thousand people will be in immigration detention. That is more than two thousand people locked up in the name of immigration, isolated from friends and family, and fearing for their future.
This Christmas, we reckon with the expansion of immigration detention following the re-opening of Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) and the addition of 160 bed spaces to the immigration detention estate. This follows a year in which immigration detention has been on the frontline of the mounting assault on migrant communities and people seeking sanctuary.
This Christmas, a network of visitors will continue, undeterred, to reach people in detention across the UK – from Northern Ireland, Scotland, and across England – sharing an important message: we see you, we hear you, you belong.
Help us spread this message and raise funds for visitor groups in the AVID network to counter the separation and isolation faced by people in immigration detention.
Funds raised will go towards
All funds raised will be distributed to visitor groups in the AVID network to support the day to day support they provide to people in detention.
When you feel like there is nobody there to listen to you…… they were there, when you actually needed them. Someone to actually sit down and listen to you. (Individual detained in Dungavel IRC, visited by Scottish Detainee Visitors)
Every pound raised will help groups to better meet the immediate needs for people in detention, including:
- Phone credit so that people in detention can contact their friends and families.
- Funds for people in detention to purchase essentials, such as toiletries.
- Christmas presents so that people in detention know that they are being thought about.
- Travel expenses for volunteer visitors so that people in detention have a visitor.
Thank you for top up, can now ring family. (Individual detained in Yarl's Wood IRC, visited by Beyond Detention)
The act of giving and visiting people in detention is more than the item received or the conversation had. It is an act of solidarity, sending an important message to people in detention that we stand for welcome, for community, not division.
By supporting our campaign, you can be part of this vision too.
* £10 can provide phone credit for one person in detention
** £20-£30 can fund a lift share by car for visitors to a drop-in in detention
*** £50 will help us provide at least 20 hours of interpreting for people in detention
About the AVID network
We are a national network of 13 visitor groups, representing 200 volunteer visitors, who visit people detained under immigration powers to provide emotional and practical support.
Collectively, members of our network visit all seven Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), as well as Residential Short-Term Holding Facilities (RSTHF) and various prisons where people are held under immigration powers. In 2024, members of the AVID network supported 6,383 people in detention. Demonstrative of our collective reach, this is 30% of people entering detention (20,604) that year.