Dianne Abbott BANNED from immigration centre by Tories
What are the Tories trying to hide? Diane Abbott has written to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to ask why she has been refused permission to visit the controversial Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre despite at least a dozen requests over more than a year. The shadow home secretary said getting access to the centre in Bedfordshire, which has regularly seen concerns raised about inappropriate treatment of highly vulnerable detainees, was a necessary part of her job. Yarl’s Wood, where foreign nationals are detained before being deported, faced criticism last month after the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, said he had found increasing numbers of women held there despite evidence they were victims of torture, rape and trafficking. Clarke said he was concerned to find that the Home Office had refused to accept that rape came within the legal definition of torture. In July a Kenyan asylum seeker won a court victory , with the ...