Prossy's Story

On May 30th, Prossy, from Burundi, shared her experience in Yarl's Wood Detention Centre at the Dover Detainee Visitor Group's Ex-Detainee Conference held at Amnesty International's London office, and she shares it with us here.
 
I was kept at the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre for about a month and a half.  The night I was arrested, UK border officers came to my apartment looking for someone else.  They asked everyone for their identification, and when they didn’t find who they were looking for, they took me.  They brought me to the Tottenham police station where they kept me in a cell overnight.  It was so cold and it was a traumatic experience.  I didn’t know what was going to happen to me or where they would take me.

The next day they told me they were moving me, but they didn’t say where we were going.  I thought they would take me back to Burundi.  They handcuffed me and placed me a van that had bars on the windows.  It felt like a cage; I felt like a dog. 

It took us all afternoon to reach the detention centre.  There it took me two hours to be processed.  They gave me a uniform and took away my cell phone.  I was given 70 pence a day.  I called my friends to tell them what had happened.  The first night I slept in a single cell in isolation.  After a few days they transferred me to another wing where I was with other women.

Three times a day they would take roll call.  The first time would be around 5 a.m. in the morning when we were all sleeping.  We would be counted, just like children.  The officers had no respect.  They had a key to the rooms and would walk in to make sure we were in our rooms, sometimes even when we were in the shower.

The noise the officers’ boots and keys made scared me and drove me crazy.  When it was time to be deported, they would sneak you out in the middle of the night so that no one would see what was going on.  Sometimes they would use force, which is why they took our cell phones away, so we wouldn’t take pictures.

When I was told I was going to be deported, I told the officers that I was seeking asylum.  A friend I had made in the detention centre told me to say that because it would keep me from being taken away.  I was taken to a Home Office interview where I met with a solicitor.  After a few interviews, I was released temporarily and brought back to Tottenham because I had friends there who could pay my rent.  I was not allowed to work because of my status.

That was a very bad period of time for me.  I didn’t feel at all settled and was always worried that they would come and take me away again.  I got very anxious and depressed.  Life was too difficult and I thought I had no future.  I always felt so small and foolish talking to people about my situation, thinking I was useless to the community.  I reached the extent of trying to commit suicide, as I thought it was my only solution.  

Around this time, I also lost my housing.  My friends lost their jobs so they couldn’t help me pay rent any longer.  My landlord locked me out of my room and threw away all my things.  I had to wait outside for my flatmates to open the door and try to run in behind them.  Some wouldn't let me in as the landlord had told them not to.  I would spend nights sleeping on the bus, and during the day some of my friends would take me in.  My mental condition was getting worse.  Finally, a community care solicitor helped me get temporary housing through the housing council.  

I began attending St. Ann’s Halliwick everyday to be treated for my mental health problems due to the trauma I had been through.  These meetings kept me alive.  One day I got a call from Christine from the ex-detainee group.  I had completely forgotten about the ex-detainee services.  Christine and the other staff there were interested in me and gave me moral support, referring me to MRCF and other organisations, such as the Red Cross and Freedom from Torture, whose staff are trying their level best to give me the support of a psychotherapist.

Life is still difficult.  It's difficult not knowing what will come next.  But I am recovering my self esteem, and everyday I wake up with a program and my anxiety is reduced.  I am just trying to take one day at a time and remind myself that there are people who care.