17 January 2005

NEWS RELEASE
DETAINEES DIG DEEP FOR TSUNAMI VICTIMS

Alongside the millions of pounds that have been donated to help rebuild the lives of the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami, some of Britain ’s poorest and least advantaged people have collected money to send to Sri Lanka.

Pentecostal detainees at Harmondsworth Detention Centre, Heathrow, raised £220.47 which is being sent to the Sri Lankan Universal Pentecostal Church. Some of the Christian ministers who visit inmates at the centre have connections with the coastal region of Sri Lanka that was devastated by the tsunami.
A visitor from the Jesuit Refugee Service, whose staff and volunteers regularly visit Harmondsworth, described their generosity as “the detainees’ mite”. “Considering the individual allowance for a detainee is less than £1 per day, their generosity must have been no less mighty than that of those who gave out of their riches,” he said.

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport opened in September 2001. It holds those detained by the Immigration Service as overstayers, illegal entrants or failed asylum seekers prior to their removal from the country. It also holds a smaller proportion of detainees whose cases have not yet been determined, but who are considered to be at risk of absconding or whose identities are being established.

For more information, contact Ged Clapson (Communications Officer, British Jesuits) on 020 7499 0285 or 07778 218671.