Hunger striker Mojirola Daniels speaks out

Mojirola Daniels was one of 84 women who went on hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood in early February 2010. She and the other women are protesting against the length of their detention and the conditions at Yarl’s Wood. In an exclusive interview with The Testimony Project, Mojirola speaks out about the treatment of the hunger strikers during a clash with detention centre staff.

We were singing and chanting for about one and a half hours before we were locked up. Some ladies went to the door and asked to go to the toilet. The officers, including the manager Viv Moore, told us that we are not allowed to leave. Some of the ladies started getting sick and collapsing on the floor…There was no door or windows open and we were all complaining of lack of air. Around 2.00 pm, some Chinese girls asked the officers to go to the toilet and they were told no one is allowed to get out. The [women bent] down at the corner and peed on the floor…the officers were all watching and still refused to open the door.

Some people decided to call the emergency service for the lady having breathing difficulty. The police and ambulance were asked for and they called us back to tell us they are outside of the centre but were not allowed entry.

About an hour after the police called us back, some ladies realised that the window was only closed, not locked. They opened the window and got out into the compound. Other ladies went through the window and joined them. More were trying to get out through the window but the officers had seen what was happening…they crushed the ladies who were trying to get out with guard shields and pushed them to the ground. Some women were crushed to the ground and beaten up….We were all hysterical and begging the officers not to hurt the women outside. The officers laughed at us as more officers joined them and formed a line to force the women outside in one small corner…

The women locked up and the 19 women outside were not offered any food or drink. There was no heat in the small place where we were, and we all suffered from hypothermia. The ladies outside had to stand in the cold snow without socks [or] jackets and the officers [would] not allow them to have jackets.

Some seven hours after being locked up, the women were finally released. Since the recent, clash Mojirola says that many of the women have had nightmares, herself included. She says she is shocked that she could experience such treatment in the UK.

Mojirola came to the UK from Nigeria in December 1987 after being forcibly circumcised as a child; she feared her family would do the same to her baby. She has three British-born children and has now been detained for almost three months in Yarl’s Wood.

Hunger striker Mojirola Daniels speaks out

Hunger striker Mojirola Daniels speaks out

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