Laureine Tcuapo speaks at protest at Communications House in support of SOAS cleaners held in Yarl's Wood detention centre
Seventy people demonstrated outside Communications House in London on Saturday afternoon (27 June 2009) in a protest organised by the Campaign Against Immigration Controls in support of the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) cleaners who were detained there, the protesters at Yarl's Wood and all migrants in struggle against Britain's racist immigration laws. Communications House is an Immigration Reporting Centre on Old Street, to the north of the City of London where many refugees and asylum seekers are processed before being taken to detention centres and deportation. It The SOAS 9 cleaning workers were taken there after an early morning raid alleged to be a reprisal against their successful campaign for a living wage and trade union recognition, and campaigners for them were among those there today. The protest began with an address by Laureine Tcuapo who fled to Britain to escape repeated rape and abuse from a relative in the Cameroon police force. On Friday 12 June at 7am, immigration police kicked down the door of her Newcastle house and took her and her two young children forcibly to Yarl's Wood Immigration Detention. After campaigning on her behalf by Tyneside Community Action for Refugees and No Borders North East on her behalf she was not flown back to Cameroon as planned, and was released from detention on 25 June but is still at risk of deportation. Laureine had been held in Yarl's Wood when the continuing hunger strike by detainees began last Monday, in protest over the inhumane conditions there. Yarl's Wood is effectively a prison privately run by SERCO.
Size: 3347px × 5040px
Location: Old Street, London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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