Nor is the brave response by those detained a new thing. In 2004 persons held by Her Majesty’s government rioted after one death at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow airport.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/death-in-cell-sparks-riot-at-detention-centre-for-immigrants-553898.html

Detainees who resist their treatment and incarceration must be supported by anyone with an ounce of humanity. Deaths in custody must not go unnoticed. All immigration detention centres must be closed immediately. 9 deaths in UK detention centres are documented here but there have been more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_custody

This was sent by Global Women’s Strike & WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)
>Tel 020 7482 2496 (voice/minicom)
>winvisible@allwomencount.net http://www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20WwDiss/WVindex.htm>
>www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20WwDiss/WVindex.htm. They will be supporting Peter Gichura in court and outside with placards.
>contact: tel/minicom: 020 7482 2496 or 07803 789699

More information…
Peter Gichura, father, wheelchair user and disability activist, is again
>threatened with imminent removal back to Kenya, where he faces political
>persecution, including death threats, and the loss of the medical treatment
>on which his life depends.
>
>Mr Gichura is suing the Home Office and Kalyx, the private company which
>runs Harmondsworth detention centre, for mistreatment in 2006. On 21 May,
>the district judge at Central London County Court will rule whether Mr
>Gichura can proceed with his disability discrimination case under the
>Disability Discrimination Act, and also under the European Convention on
>Human Rights which forbids discrimination. Meanwhile, the Home Office is
>pressing ahead with deportation of the man who has taken them to court for
>discrimination. On 23 May at the High Court, Mr Gichura’s legal team will
>argue it is unjust for him to be returned to Kenya.
>
>The Home Office claims that if he is sent back, Mr Gichura’s right to a
>fair hearing of his case won’t be jeopardised, and that he could pursue his
>civil action from Kenya — despite having compelling medical and other expert
>evidence that he would not have access to treatment there, his life would
>be
>in danger, and the village he would return to lacks basic accessible living
>conditions.
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>Peter Gichura was detained twice in Harmondsworth in appalling conditions
>including: not being able to use the bathroom and toilet properly,
>suffering
>painful and threatening body searches, and on the first occasion (February
>2006) being given the wrong medication. Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of
>Prisons, condemned the conditions at Harmondsworth as “the poorest report
>we
>have issued on an Immigration Removal Centre” (November 2006).
>
>Mr Gichura’s original application for asylum on grounds of political
>persecution as a disability activist was refused. In 2006, when his spinal
>injury worsened, he applied for asylum for medical treatment without which
>he would die. Expert evidence from Rachel Hurst OBE (Disability Awareness
>in Action), a member of the Advisory Group to the government Office for
>Disability, confirming this, has been ignored. Many other people seeking
>asylum face a similar fate as Mr Gichura, and others have already been sent
>back, because of a High Court ruling that removal does not contravene
>Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right not to be
>subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.
>
>In a similar case, recent press coverage has highlighted the plight of a
>couple who face a rapid deterioration in their health and death, if they
>were deported, because the medical treatment they need (for HIV) would not
>be available and their young son would become an orphan (Independent, 4
>April 2007).
>
>In March, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights condemned as
>unacceptable, “the deliberate use of inhumane treatment” in asylum policy
>and found that, “Asylum seekers as a group do not always get the greatest
>sympathy from society or the media, but what we have seen and heard
>provides
>very hard evidence of appalling treatment that no human being should
>suffer.”
>
>Also in March, Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People, signed the UK
>government up to the
> UN Convention on
>the
>Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which prohibits discrimination against
>people with disabilities in all areas of life, including access to justice
>and the right to health services. But the Home Office is going against the
>Convention by continuing High Court proceedings to send Mr Gichura back to
>Kenya.
>
>Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, writing in support of Mr Gichura,
>said: “I would underline the wider social consequences of handling cases
>like these in ways that entrench . . . a perception that the UK immigration
>regime is unbalanced, unjust and inhumane. I recall . . .the European
>Convention on Human Rights, “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by
>law.” He proposes discussion with the Home Office “to find some more
>humane
>middle ground” than the current refusal of medical grounds (Letter to Liam
>Byrne, 12 October 2006).
>
>People with disabilities have not only the right to life but also the right
>to live free from fear. We are calling on everyone, and especially those
>who speak for the disability community, to defend Peter Gichura’s right to
>anti-discrimination protection and safety. A victory in his case would help
>establish rights and protections for all.
>

Many thanks to Indymedia, the only independent media in the UK it seems. The lack of response from the mainstream media around the detainees’ protest has been shameful.

Read the detainees’ petition signed by 116 detainees:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/395575.html

Yesterday morning, April 1st, from 9am, all – or the majority at least- of immigration detainees at Harmondsworth removal centre refused food and were in peaceful occupation of the courtyard.

Detainees said: ‘We are human beings, we want to be treated with dignity we shall stay in the coutyard until our demands are heard.’

Full story: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/395251.html

Later at 11pm, it was added “some detainees, they say about a hundred, are still in the courtyard and refusing to go back in. They intend to spend the night in the courtyard. They are gettig water. Some have duvets and warm clothes. Very few people have eaten, most are still refusing food since 9am.”