About AVID

AVID, the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees, is a national network of 13 visitor groups, representing more than 300 visitors, to people in immigration detention.

We exist to reduce the immediate suffering of people in immigration detention and work towards a future without detention.

Why we exist

AVID was founded in 1994.

At that time, there were around 250 immigration detention spaces. Immigration detention was not well known, or understood. But once people heard that people were being held in their communities in prisons, or in prison conditions, for administrative reasons, there was no shortage of offers to help from local communities.

It soon became clear that visiting in detention was not easy. People in detention were isolated, anxious about what was going to happen, and the policy and legal environment was difficult to navigate. Originally formed by visitors at Winchester Prison and Haslar Immigration Removal Centre, AVID was set up to provide support, training and information and to help visitors around the country learn from each other. As a national organisation, we also began to carry out advocacy work, pushing for change on behalf of all those detained, and raising awareness of the realities of detention.

Over the years AVID has maintained a constant presence in detention. We've set up new groups as the use of detention has grown, trained thousands of volunteers, helped raise awareness of immigration detention, and been a critical voice for change throughout these years.

More recently, AVID and our members have been devastated to witness the government shift away from alternatives to detention and detention reduction - which preceded 2019 - to an increase in the use of immigration detention since 2020. This has coincided with an increase in the use of detention for people seeking asylum and the introduction of more punitive measures to meet the government’s deterrent agenda in relation to immigration.

Our thirty year history of working with local communities and people detained has provided us with insurmountable evidence of the senseless, harmful, and discriminatory nature of detention. Removal of someone’s liberty is an extreme measure and its indefinite nature has been described by people detained as “mental torture”. Revealingly, the recent Brook House Inquiry report found evidence of 19 instances (in a period of just four months and in one detention centre) in which there was credible evidence amounting to mistreatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Courts of Human Rights – the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment. Instead of responding to this evidence, the safeguards that have developed to protect people in detention from harm are being shamelessly disregarded. Detention threatens to become the default option for people seeking asylum in the UK whilst the Illegal Migration Action legitimises the use of detention for as long as is deemed necessary to facilitate removal.

Visitors are an essential link in the chain to bridge the divisions which are caused and sustained by detention. Visitors play a vital role in mitigating the harm that is caused by detention. They meet with people detained to provide emotional support, be a friend, give practical advice, liaise with lawyers and signpost to other organisations who can help. Further, visitors have a unique understanding of the daily, lived realities of detention centres, which commonly operate in remote and isolated areas. However, visiting is not easy, emotionally nor practically. To fulfill their role and maximise their impact, visitors and visitor groups benefit from advice, support, and collaboration.

AVID was established in direct response to this need thirty years ago. And, for as long as detention continues in the UK, AVID will continue to work with and alongside our members to ensure these voices are heard, and that their experiences are not ignored.

What we do

Volunteer visitors are now established in every Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), and Residential Short Term Holding Facility (STHF) as well as some prisons. Many thousands of people have been supported during their detention.

We provide an ongoing programme of training, bespoke resources, and infrastructure provision to visitor groups who are members of the AVID network. An important reason visitor groups are part of our network is to be connected to other visitors and to the wider context. We provide a programme of structured-peer support, skill-sharing and cultivate a community of care. This is underpinned by our Members Charter which are seven shared values at the heart of our network. These values are: solidarity; community; anti-racism and anti-oppression; lived-experience led; independence; care and accountability; and dignity.

These values ensure that we remain connected to our longer-term vision, a future without detention. We utilise the power of our diverse network and our unique position of oversight to advocate for change. We do this by monitoring and collecting evidence on detention, engaging with the public on the realities of detention and by co-ordinating collective action and connections to key stakeholders. For far too long people with direct experience of immigration detention have been left out of the conversation and policy work. Led by our Co-Director of Policy and Influencing who also has lived immigration detention experience, our policy work amplifies collective struggles, ensuring that those directly affected drive the conversation.

You can find out more information about who we are and what we do by visiting our website at www.aviddetention.org.uk.