Hello - I’m running the Hackney Half Marathon to raise money for  Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), and I would be extremely grateful if you could donate whatever you can!


BID are a charity that provide free legal advice and representation to immigration detainees. They are also one the most important groups campaigning against immigration detention in the UK.


The Home Office routinely detain vulnerable individuals, such as victims of torture, victims of trafficking and people with severe mental health problems. They also use immigration detention as a means to extend the custodial period for foreign nationals. This can also include people born in the UK/ who came to the UK as children but whose British status was never regularised (often due to extortionate nationality fees). This includes care-leavers and young people trafficked for the purposes of criminal exploitation (like county lines). These people have no ‘release date’ and are effectively detained indefinitely until they receive assistance. The story of immigration detention in this country is so incredibly dark.


I’ve represented immigration detainees for the last few years, and it’s probably one of the main reasons I ended up pursuing a career in law. Unfortunately, the demand for legal representation far outweighs the supply of legal aid firms able to assist, and this means many people remain detained without legal representation. BID takes on these cases, which are often the hardest. Their continued work is extremely important.