Teresa Degenhardt is a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast.
The Belfast Telegraph reported the troubling case of a Spanish woman who was placed on suicide watch while being held in Larne House — the UK’s short-term immigration detention centre located behind Larne police station.
For many readers, it may have been the first time they’d heard of Larne House, or even of the UK’s use of immigration detention. Meanwhile, public attention has been focused in recent years on high-profile protests against housing asylum seekers in hotels, and on outbreaks of violence on the streets of Belfast linked to anti-immigration sentiment.
Yet few of those involved in such protests are likely to have met a migrant — or to have considered what it means to be held in detention because of one’s citizenship status. Even fewer may have reflected on the broader human impact of the UK’s detention policies: the psychological toll, the uncertainty, and the isolation faced by those detained. The case of the Spanish woman who had suicidal thoughts while held in detention in error for 5 days must be a wake-up call for us all.
In 2024, more than 20,600 people were held in immigration detention in the UK — a rise of 12% compared to the previous year; 267 of which were in Larne. The UK remains the only country in Europe without a legal time limit on immigration detention, meaning individuals can be held for indefinite periods. Many are detained for over a month before being either deported or released.
A recent report on Larne House suggests that in spite of the best efforts of staff at Larne, the detention centre presents ongoing concerns, including that women are still not provided a separate common room for them — an issue first documented in a 2018 inspection. The report also highlighted problems with the long time spent in Larne compared to other UK centres, the inability to detect vulnerable individuals who should not be in detention, as well as deficiencies in access to medical support. It is recognised that many people are moved around the detention system overnight without regard to the impact on the elderly and most vulnerable. In 2022, a freedom of information request revealed that 8 pregnant women had also been detained in Larne between 2016 and 2022. The system is a form of institutional violence we do not need.
“Removed” is a 10-minute animated film offering a first-hand perspective on immigration detention in the UK, based on the collective work of researchers, artists, women* with lived experience and activists and volunteers of the AVID network, funded by the British Academy, AVID and the center for Border Criminologies at the University of Oxford. The film sheds light on a system often hidden from public view shaping a powerful counter narrative (for more on research process see here).
The film will be screened on 29 October at 12 noon at Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT) as part of the ESRC Social Science Festival. The event features Aminata Kalokoh, a former detainee now working with AVID, and myself, presenting research co-authored with Dr. Francesca Esposito (who led the animation project).
The audience will hear personal stories of detention and be invited to reflect on alternatives to this often harmful system. The animation “Removed” highlights how detention can compound earlier trauma — including abuse and gender-based violence — and raises urgent questions about the real human cost of current immigration policies and the future we wish to shape.
To register for this event please visit: Removed: how does it feel to be detained in immigration detention? Tickets, Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite
QPol is the ‘front door’ for public policy engagement at Queen’s University Belfast, supporting academics and policymakers in sharing evidence-based research and ideas on the major social, cultural and economic challenges facing society regionally, nationally and beyond. Website: qpol.qub.ac.uk Email: [email protected]
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