Dorset: Portland, The Verne Immigration Removal Centre Concerns.

It's bad enough at Calais, Lampedusa, and Lesvos, as well as at Samos and Kos. I was enjoying my swim near Weymouth, until I gazed across at Portland, knowing of the deaths - suicides (?) and incidents of violence over at The Verne IRC.

From the Dorset Echo

Very sad news - update August 2015 - Asylum seeker found dead at the Verne (Dorset Echo)

Article from March 2015 - Conditions at the Verne IRC (Dorset Echo)

From The Independent, June 2014 - "A young asylum seeker has been found dead at a Victorian jail which is still being run as a prison despite only housing people seeking refuge in Britain, The Independent has learnt. Bruno Dos Santos, who was in his 20s and has a child in the UK, was discovered in his cell at around 7.30am this morning at HMP The Verne, which is on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and dates back to the 1840s".

Other incidents

Detained migrants speak out - "Detainees who witnessed a protest at the Verne immigration detention centre in Dorset ... say an Iraqi detainee climbed on the porch roof of the education block on Friday 6 March. They say he then put a noose made from a bed sheet round his neck and jumped. The sheet broke and he was not injured, but up to 150 detainees protested after the incident".

Update on migration, The Guardian, August 2015

Update BBC News - The Verne immigration removal centre: 'Serious violence' concerns

Dorset Echo report

What happens to failed asylum seekers? BBC News Magazine