We launch our Anti-Birthday campaign
This summer BID will turn 20 years old, but this is no cause for celebration. Help make sure our services are no longer needed. Help us #EndDetention.
This summer, BID will turn 20 years old but we're not celebrating.
In our first annual report from 1999 our founders described their determination “to challenge the government’s failure to abide by international human rights standards.”
Two decades later, it is unacceptable that people are still locked up for immigration purposes.
Our Anti-Birthday Campaign will run across the summer and will highlight the ongoing failure of the UK immigration detention system. Crucially, the campaign also encourages supporters to make an Anti-birthday gift. We want to end detention. But we need your help.
For the last 20 years, BID has borne witness to the daily injustices faced by immigration detainees. We have consistently held the Home Office to account while advocating to end detention and supported over 45,000 people to fight for their freedom.
With our 20th birthday fast approaching, we have one simple wish. We want an end to the needless suffering and trauma inflicted on migrants at the hands of the Home Office.
Support us by choosing a gift from our anti-birthday wish list and join our growing movement to #EndDetention.
You can buy us a gift individually, or together as an office, school, class or community group. Any size gift is welcome and all of them help BID do our important and necessary work.
When people are detained there are many barriers to them accessing the support they need. Your gift of £15 could go towards addressing these barriers by contributing towards interpreting, postage and telephone fees.
Our latest Legal Advice Survey found that just 7% of people held in prison before being moved to a detention centre said they had received immigration advice whilst in prison. Your donation could help cover the travel costs for our team to visit people detained in prisons and provide face-to-face legal advice to help them fight for their freedom.
With ongoing cuts to legal aid, our advice line is often the first point of call for legal assistance in detention. For four mornings a week, our legal advisers and volunteer caseworkers give free advice and information about bail to detainees who call in. Your donation of £60 could keep our advice line running for a whole morning.
Getting expert reports to support a client’s deportation case can be incredibly expensive. With many reports costing in excess of £1,000 your gift of £250 could make a significant contribution towards helping clients overturn a deportation order.
We believe all detention is harmful and should be ended. Our vision is of a world free of immigration detention, where people are not deprived of their liberty for immigration purposes.
We are powered towards this by the incredible support of generous volunteers and donors who keep our vital services going. Please support our Anti-Birthday campaign and help end this injustice.
