Detainees protest after centre suicide

Detainees at an immigration removal centre have compiled a dossier on what they say are deplorable conditions after a 26-year-old man facing deportation to his native Eritrea committed suicide.

Yohannes Bereket, 26, was found hanging in the showers at the Harmondsworth centre, near Heathrow Airport, last Thursday (19 January). Campaigners said he is the seventh asylum seeker to commit suicide in a UK detention centre.

The group of 61 detainees claim they are treated as if they are sub-human by staff at the centre, which was temporarily closed in 2004 after an earlier suicide sparked riots.