Visitors often describe their role as one of visiting in the place of family or friends, in a context where someone may be isolated from their usual support networks. A visitors role frequently involves:
Active listening and offering empathy and compassion at times of distress
Standing alongside people as they seek to meet their basic needs e.g by sharing money, phone top-ups or clothing
Sharing information about immigration detention and their rights in detention, such as information about legal advice, healthcare and bail.
Facilitating communication between people inside detention and groups or individuals outside, including solicitors, specialist support groups, family or friends.
However, the nature of the relationship of solidarity built can vary widely, depending on the person you are visiting and your own approach. It will also vary according to the boundaries set by visitor groups and by the particular constraints of visiting in different spaces of incarceration.
Hundreds of people across the UK volunteer each week to visit people being detained under immigration powers in detention centres and prisons. Visitors come from all walks of life, but are united in their commitment to standing in solidarity with those in detention and creating a society rooted in community not incarceration.
This chapter is designed to help prepare you for visiting people in detention. It includes practical information as well as guidance around the principles of visiting drawn from the experiences of visitor groups and people who have been visited.
However, it is important to receive an induction and training from your visitors group before visiting someone in immigration detention. A good induction will better prepare you with skills and understanding to help navigate the challenges of visiting in immigration detention. AVID provides core visiting skills training to members of our network. Co-ordinators can contact us to arrange this for your visitor group.
A major reason for visiting people in detention is to show solidarity with people detained and that we are committed to an end of detention. Through visiting, we bear witness to the system and raise awareness of it's injustices, connecting with the wider movement against detention. Visiting is also an important way to alleviate the immediate suffering of people in detention.
Detention makes people feel lonely, distressed, anxious and negatively impacts their sense of self worth.
People are usually detained miles away from their home and communities, making it very difficult for family members to visit. Travel costs are expensive, thus forcing family members and friends to weigh the options of visiting against other needs such as possible legal costs. Family members may be in the same position of limbo as the person in detention, leaving them with no possibility of visiting, as they will be unable to fulfil the legal ID checks. All of this results in additional frustration and isolation for people in detention.
The emotional and practical support provided through visiting is immeasurable. Having a visitor can make a real difference in the life of someone in detention, providing them with support and hope. It is a source of comfort for someone at a moment of extreme vulnerability in their life.
Volunteer visitors have told us too that visiting has broadened their skills and knowledge about the UK immigration system, enabled them to learn from other cultures, and helped them better understand the various reasons why people seek sanctuary in the UK. Through visiting, they are empowered to have honest conversations within their communities and amongst friends and families about the experiences of those affected by this system.
Visiting is a significant commitment that requires patience and compassion. The journey times to removal centres and prisons are often long, and registration and entry to centres can be frustrating and time-consuming too. The meeting can be difficult as the person you visit may not speak the same language as you, their experiences may have been tortuous or complicated, and they may not wish to talk about them. If they do decide to share their personal story, you may hear things that will shock or upset you, and the person who you visit may be feeling ill, anxious, or depressed.
At the same time, visitors often express humility in the face of the bravery and resilience demonstrated by people who they visit.
I suppose we don’t often think about things in this way, but if you’ve got good friends and think about what they mean to you, and then say if you meet a refugee, you realise that you’re meeting a very remarkable person, who’s coped with things that would absolutely frighten me.
Jim, Visitor, extract from AVID's Hidden Stories
Long term visiting is a commitment. The injustices of detention can be difficult to bear witness to, and feelings of frustration and impotence at being unable to help can lead to visitors burning out. It is important to look after your own wellbeing in this context and we discuss this later in this chapter.
However, we cannot emphasise enough the huge difference your visit can make to someone else’s life and your own too.
Each visitor group has a different recruitment process, which may involve an informal interview and the submission of character references.
Before you start visiting, your visitors group will usually provide an induction and some initial training. This might include:
The role of a visitor
What to expect when you visit
Issues that people might raise with you and how you might respond
How to take care of your own well being as a visitor
Group processes and policies including what you can/can't do as a visitor, and what to do if you are concerned someone is at risk of immediate harm
Often groups will invite volunteers to accompany a more experienced volunteer before they do any visiting on their own.
Volunteer visitors should not ordinarily start visiting alone until they have had some basic training. AVID can deliver core training on visiting for new volunteers - contact your co-ordinator or AVID for more information.
Read more about joining a local visitors groups below:
