Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has launched a CrowdJustice campaign aimed at securing funding for their Separated Families project.
Each year, BID helps reunite around 100 families who have been separated by immigration detention. Every year, the government detains over 30,000 people for immigration purposes, routinely separating mothers and fathers from their children. According to BID ‘Losing a parent to detention – never knowing how long they will be gone for – is devastating for a child’ and BID has a special team providing parents who have been detained away from their children with legal advice and representation to help them apply for bail and to challenge their deportation.
BID’s CrowdJustice appeal has reached its initial £5,000 target to help fund the Separated Families project over the next twelve months. This is enough to help reunite twenty families devastated by immigration detention. However, the ‘stretch’ target is to reach £25,000 in order to provide vital legal advice to more parents in detention, by applying for their release on bail and helping challenge their deportation.
Commenting on the appeal, BID Director Celia Clarke commented: ‘Having a parent ripped from your life is really unimaginable for any child. Yet that is what we see the government do time and again with their immigration detention regime. BID’s Separated Families project aims to give parents in detention legal advice and representation to help them apply for bail and to challenge deportation orders. Last year, BID helped reunite 110 families. But we know there are hundreds, maybe thousands more families who have been torn apart by detention.’
Related links
BID’s CrowdJustice appeal