In 2000 work started on Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre, now known as Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre (YWIRC), at a former Ministry of Defence site just north of Bedford. Yarl’s Wood Befrienders was set up by the then Bishop of Bedford, John Richardson, to provide visitors for those people who would be held there.
The Befrienders started visiting detainees as soon as Yarl’s Wood IDC opened in 2001. Since then, while our organisation has grown and developed substantially, our core purpose remains the same – to be a bridge between the people detained indefinitely in YWIRC and the local community, reassuring them that they are not alone and that there are people nearby who care about them.
Now a registered charity, Yarl’s Wood Befrienders has around 60 volunteers who visit and befriend detainees or help out in various roles in the office. As a group, the volunteers are becoming increasingly diverse, enriched by several different language speakers and welcoming members from all faiths and none. This enables us to provide better support to detainees from a wide range of countries and backgrounds.
