By Ralph Outhwaite, Second Year History
On 11 December, Bristol City Council passed a motion supported by These Walls Must Fall, calling for an end to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers.
These Walls Must Fall have called for an end to privately-run detention centres and for an end to indefinite detention. Their campaign in Bristol was organised by students from the University of Bristol, such as their organiser, David Ion, who accused the current system of violating the “legal and humanitarian integrity” of the United Kingdom.
The motion, proposed by the Green Party Councillor Fi Hance and drafted in consultation with students, passed with 48 votes for, 11 against and 3 abstentions. It called on the government to end indefinite asylum seekers' detention, on Martin Rees to endorse the These Walls Must Fall campaign and on local MPs to continue raising the issue in the House of Commons.
The group also organised a march from Castle Park to the council’s building on College Green on 8 December. There, they were thanked by Kenneth Macharia, a rugby player for Bristol City Bulls, who was detained in December and threatened with forced removal to Kenya, where his sexuality could result in a fourteen-year prison sentence. The group also presented a petition to Bristol City Council.
The motion’s success means that Bristol City Council has followed in the footsteps of councils such as Manchester, Liverpool and Cambridge in being among the first to call for an end to indefinite immigration detention. It was supported by the Green Party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Featured image: David Ion / Epigram
