We are a group of people who visit immigration detainees at Larne House here in Northern Ireland. Larne House is a Short Term Holding Centre which means people are kept there for a maximum of 7 days before they are moved on to Immigration Removal Centres (IRC) either in Scotland or England. We are ordinary people who hold no official positions. Our aim is to offer support, practical advice and friendship to people held in the centre. We try to understand the difficulties faced by the detainees through conversation about their current situation and experiences they had in the UK or in other countries.
What we do
We try to make a difference. The experience of detention can be traumatic and so we are there to listen, care and help reduce the isolation faced by detainees. We cannot provide legal advice but may be able to point towards other agencies for help. We can talk to detainees from a common person's point of view about their situation for example with the Immigration Service and what might happen. As part of an extensive network of visiting groups to IRCs in the UK and a wide range of support and monitoring groups we can help to make contact to get advice or direct assistance with a number of issues such as health or legal support.
Everything we do is confidential