Across the country Home Office detentions have been thwarted by local people and activists forcing the release of detainees. What’s behind the grassroots backlash?
It was 9am on 13 May 2021, when Nick, 63, and Ishbel, 62, got a text to say there was about to be a Home Office raid in Kenmure Street, which lies in the Glasgow district of Pollokshields. Both retired, and living just a 10-minute drive away, they were there before the enforcement van had found a place to park. Ishbel ran to the front door of the tenement; Nick, a bit slower walking with a stick, made for the front of the van. As Ishbel observed: “They’ll not be able to move as long as we’re standing there.” Meanwhile, another man had slipped underneath the van and was lying there.
Two men were detained in the van. Immigration officers, with a man jammed against the wheels of their vehicle, had very little room to manoeuvre – but this was just the beginning. A steady trickle of people joined the trio, growing when Eid prayers ended at the mosque on the corner of the road. “After that, it basically just exploded,” Ishbel says. “People could see it on social media, they could see it from their windows,” says Nick. “You could see folk from all the local shops bringing trays of food, neighbours bringing fruit.” Nick went to fetch a blanket for the man under the van, and when he got back, there were refreshments being handed out.
