For nearly six years I've been supporting this important charity, in particular their 'Refugee Tales' project, which organises a five-day walk each July, with members of the public, and with evening events to share with them the tales of people held in immigration detention and those who work with them. 

Immigration detention centres are officially called Immigration Removal Centres, as their stated purpose is to hold people who the government intends to remove or deport from the UK. Around half of people held in immigration detention are asylum seekers, and many have family ties in the UK. Around 25,000 migrants are detained in the UK every year.

There are, at present, ten detention Immigration Removal Centres in the UK.  These are run by private security companies and run by the Prison Service. People in detention cannot leave and have very limited freedom of movement within the centres. Security levels are similar to prisons.

The UK is unique within Western Europe in that there is no maximum time limit on immigration detention. It costs, on average, more than £30,000 to detain someone for a year. The longest we know someone to have been detained is nine years. There is no judicial oversight of the decision to detain.

This year the walk events will be online, and walking will be socially-distanced and responsible walking. To celebrate 25 years of GDWG being a lifeline to those in detention, in July I'm going to be walking 10 miles a day for 25 days to try to raise money for this important charity, All the walks will start and finish from my home in East Sussex. If I could, I'd love be walking again with Refugee Tales for five days, but as this isn't possible with the Coronavirus pandemic, I'm doing this instead. 

For 25 years GDWG volunteer visitors have been offering friendships to strangers in detention, bearing witness to the realities of detention and making weekly visits to people who would otherwise be isolated. The work of the charity is ever more needed today with people released from detention - but only into destitution and homelessness, with GDWG stepping in to to offer support.

This is a very tough time for small charities, so please do show your support for those whose plight is frequently invisible - and give as generously as you are able to for GDWG and Refugee Tales!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.