Dead Zone 30-11-2010-Ann is a member of SACC (Scotland Against Criminalising Communities)

Dead Zone
Ann Alexander

I'm back in my home in the north east of Scotland after a trip to London - not to take in the shows or the sights but to spend time with special friends. Since 2004, I have travelled regularly to London to visit friends in the high security prison, HMP Belmarsh and when the harshness of indefinitely detention broke down their mental health, I followed them to Broadmoor, the state hospital for the criminally insane. Now I am visiting the same Muslim men and their families in homes I can only enter with permission from the Home Office. Each one is now held under the cruel restrictions of immigration bail as they fight through the courts to stop their deportation to their countries of origin where some like Mustapha Taleb, in the past, have been tortured.

I have to be vetted separately for each friend with separate vetting for Belmarsh and separate vetting for Broadmoor. The desperate situation of these men has been made easy for people to ignore by being constantly referred to over the past nine years as a “few individuals”. As usual, I returned home less optimistic, less hopeful, more weary and completely diminished!

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http://hhugs.org.uk/dead-zone/296