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Yarl's Wood - rebranding detention - parallax 3

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 A Rebranding Exercise?

After years of campaigning and advocacy the UK government did end child detention in 2010 (Corporatewatch, 2011). However,  opinions remain divided about the appropriate approach to the detention of adults whilst children are still being detained in so-called pre-departure accommodation centres (Gentleman, 2011), also run by the same private security companies found guilty of unlawful killing (see the case of Jimmy Mubenga).

The period for detention remains a sensitive topic: Some have argued for ending all immigration detention (Corporatewatch, 2011), others such as HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (2017) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration (2015) have argued for a maximum time limit to be set on immigration detention.

Despite various recommendations and court rulings, immigration detention continues. By repackaging indefinite detention – a form of imprisonment – with euphemisms like “short detention” or “pre-departure accommodation centres” the UK has been undertaking, in fact, a rebranding exercise.


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This research was primarily supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme from 2016-2020.

Partial funding was received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Partnership Development Grants scheme in 2016-2017.

The views expressed herein are those of the named authors and are not necessarily those of the funders.

All content © artists and deathscapes.org, 2017.

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