Consett protest over Hassockfield women's detention centre

Protesters have staged a town centre demonstration against a new immigration detention centre for women.

Derwentside Immigration Centre, which is due to open in County Durham this month, will replace Yarl's Wood as the UK's only women's only centre.

At a protest in nearby Consett, opponents objected to the practise of detention and said people coming to the UK "deserve sanctuary and love".

The Home Office said detention is still needed in a small number of cases.

The government said the unit at Hassockfield will house foreign national prison inmates due for release and immigration offenders awaiting deportation, with capacity for 84 people.

The site previously served as the Medomsley detention centre for young offenders and was the scene of widespread abuse for decades before it shut in 1988.

The protest in Consett was organised by various campaign groups including Durham People's Assembly, Abolish Detention and No To Hassockfield.

A spokeswoman for the assembly said: "We believe those seeking safety in this country deserve sanctuary, love, friendship, and protection and do not deserve to be criminalised, dehumanised and locked up, only worsening vulnerability.

"Immigration detention is cruel, inhumane and unnecessary."

The crowd of about 60 was addressed by Agnes Tanoh from Women for Refugee Women, who was detained in Yarl's Wood.

She said: "Detention destroys a woman, destroys our mental health, destroys our hope."

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