About LDSG
LDSG aims to improve the welfare of immigration detainees, primarily those held at Harmondsworth and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centres near Heathrow Airport in London.
Immigration detainees can be held indefinitely, and their detention is not automatically reviewed by the courts. Most detainees are asylum seekers whose claims have been refused. Many experience extreme isolation and distress, knowing no-one in the UK and with very limited understanding of the language, law, their rights and entitlements. Many are traumatised by their experiences in their home country, by finding themselves detained with no release date, and by the prospect of being forcibly returned.
LDSG’s work is firmly based on our humanitarian principles and we continue to support all immigration detainees in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook, irrespective of their faith, background and ethnicity, in a non-judgmental manner. Founded in 1993 by a group of volunteers informally visiting detainees in the original Harmondsworth detention centre, LDSG has gradually increased in size over the years as more funding has been obtained, allowing us to recruit and supervise more volunteers. LDSG is independent of the Home Office and of the detention centres.
Around 70 LDSG volunteers are visiting individual detainees every week to 10 days, to provide emotional support and practical help. We also have a small team of three full-time staff and several office volunteers, who run a detainee freephone service and offer non-immigration advice and casework.
In January 2009 LDSG launched the "Detained Lives" campaign to end indefinite immigration detention. LDSG has been supporting increasing numbers of people detained for periods of years with no prospect of deportation. Many are de facto stateless, while others are from countries that are too dangerous for them to be deported. They are left in limbo in detention, often at great cost to their mental health.
To coincide with the launch of the campaign, LDSG published the "Detained Lives" research report, which presents evidence of the ineffectiveness and the human cost of the practice of indefinite detention. The report was based on powerful testimony from 24 current detainees held for more than a year, as well as quantitative research into the effectiveness of indefinite detention. The report is available here.
Please visit the campaign website at www.detainedlives.org.
Download the 2008-09 Annual Report here.
Download the 2007/08 Annual Report here.
Download the 2006/07 Annual Report here.
LDSG is funded by:
The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
AB Charitable Trust
AW.60 Charitable Trust
Barrow Cadbury Trust
The Bromley Trust
City Parochial Foundation
Doughty Street Chambers
The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust
Helen Tetlow Memorial Fund
The Henry Smith Charity
Jill Franklin Trust
The LankellyChase Foundation
Matrix Chambers
The Norda Trust
Odin Charitable Trust
The Rowan Charitable Trust
Sir Halley Stewart Charitable Trust
The Tudor Trust
Charity registration no. 1065066.
www.detainedlives.org
Immigration detainees can be held indefinitely, and their detention is not automatically reviewed by the courts. Most detainees are asylum seekers whose claims have been refused. Many experience extreme isolation and distress, knowing no-one in the UK and with very limited understanding of the language, law, their rights and entitlements. Many are traumatised by their experiences in their home country, by finding themselves detained with no release date, and by the prospect of being forcibly returned.
LDSG’s work is firmly based on our humanitarian principles and we continue to support all immigration detainees in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook, irrespective of their faith, background and ethnicity, in a non-judgmental manner. Founded in 1993 by a group of volunteers informally visiting detainees in the original Harmondsworth detention centre, LDSG has gradually increased in size over the years as more funding has been obtained, allowing us to recruit and supervise more volunteers. LDSG is independent of the Home Office and of the detention centres.
Around 70 LDSG volunteers are visiting individual detainees every week to 10 days, to provide emotional support and practical help. We also have a small team of three full-time staff and several office volunteers, who run a detainee freephone service and offer non-immigration advice and casework.
In January 2009 LDSG launched the "Detained Lives" campaign to end indefinite immigration detention. LDSG has been supporting increasing numbers of people detained for periods of years with no prospect of deportation. Many are de facto stateless, while others are from countries that are too dangerous for them to be deported. They are left in limbo in detention, often at great cost to their mental health.
To coincide with the launch of the campaign, LDSG published the "Detained Lives" research report, which presents evidence of the ineffectiveness and the human cost of the practice of indefinite detention. The report was based on powerful testimony from 24 current detainees held for more than a year, as well as quantitative research into the effectiveness of indefinite detention. The report is available here.
Please visit the campaign website at www.detainedlives.org.
Download the 2008-09 Annual Report here.
Download the 2007/08 Annual Report here.
Download the 2006/07 Annual Report here.
LDSG is funded by:
The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
AB Charitable Trust
AW.60 Charitable Trust
Barrow Cadbury Trust
The Bromley Trust
City Parochial Foundation
Doughty Street Chambers
The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust
Helen Tetlow Memorial Fund
The Henry Smith Charity
Jill Franklin Trust
The LankellyChase Foundation
Matrix Chambers
The Norda Trust
Odin Charitable Trust
The Rowan Charitable Trust
Sir Halley Stewart Charitable Trust
The Tudor Trust
Charity registration no. 1065066.
www.detainedlives.org
