Katherine came to the UK from Uganda when she was 16. She is now 21 and has two children, Joseph, 2 and Sarah, 6 months. She and Joseph were detained in Yarl’s Wood for over a month in early 2007, when he was 7 months old. They now live in temporary accommodation in London, awaiting a decision on their asylum application.
“It happened when he was 7 months old. Immigration officials burst into our home at 6 o’clock in the morning. The baby screamed for hours and hours, and I couldn’t comfort him. I was too scared to even comfort him. We were taken to Yarl’s Wood. First they took away Joseph’s clothes, and this was February. That night was the worst. I tried to keep him warm in bed in this tiny cold room, and he screamed and I cried and I didn’t know what was going to happen to us. It so was like when they took me before, in Uganda. I wasn’t sure which was real.
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