Recently, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders assembled at Harmondsworth Moor. The Moor sits five miles from the home of Magna Carta and a few feet away from Harmondsworth Detention Centre. The faith leaders met to raise their voice together in solidarity with those held in indefinite immigration detention in the UK as part of the national Time for a Time Limit campaign.
The event was attended by Bishops, Imams and Rabbis and many others including members of Freed Voices, a group of former detainees who collectively have lost more than 30 years of their lives to the detention system and John McDonnell MP.
Rabbi Lea Mühlstein, of the Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue, commented: “As a rabbi of a synagogue in Hillingdon I feel strongly that we cannot ignore the injustice that is happening right on our doorstep. Indefinite detention is a direct insult to Jewish morals.”
Michael Darko from Freed Voices, said: ” Waiting without knowing is like torture because humans deserve freedom to know, to control, to choose where they will live.“
Hayes & Harlington MP John McDonnell participated in the event and said: “British people would not support the system if they knew what it was like.”
Finally, representing the Catholic community, His Grace Most Rev Kevin McDonald said: “These vulnerable people, many who have survived war, trauma and persecution, will experience severe distress and further loss of dignity while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed. The people in Harmondsworth may only be 200m from us, but in terms of the rights that every human deserves – justice, equality and liberty – they are a million miles away.”
You can read some of the media coverage below:
http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/faith-leaders-unite-to-demand-rights-for-migrants/
http://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Faith-groups-protest-immigration-detention-laws
Read all the tweets from the day itself:
https://storify.com/Rene_Cassin/detention-interfaith-tent-2015
