An Algerian woman being held at Yarl's Wood Immigration Centre after living in the UK for 24 years has told Sky News she feels like she has been kidnapped.
The detainee – who wants to remain anonymous – is one of around 45 people at the centre who are starting an "indefinite" hunger strike from today in protest at conditions inside.
:: Women 'on hunger strike' in immigration centre
It comes after shadow home secretary Dianne Abbott and shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti visited Yarl's Wood last week, concerned over conditions inside the centre in Bedfordshire.
Up to 400 foreign nationals are held at Yarl's Wood – nearly all of them women – as they wait to find out if they will be deported.
One of them, a 35-year-old from Algeria, arrived in the UK when she was just 11 years old.
Twenty-four years later, when applying for a passport, she found out she was undocumented and told Sky News she has been held at Yarl's Wood for the last three months.
"My life is just in limbo, it's the uncertainty as well. You don't how long you'll be locked up, you don't when you're getting out, you don't know where you're going, I can't describe that feeling.
"I feel like I have been kidnapped basically, I don't know where I am going, I don't know what's going on."
She told Sky News many of those inside are victims of horrific crimes.
"The thing that touches my heart is that I met so many people from really messed up places and they go through things – corrective rape, I didn't even know such a thing existed, and they lock up trafficking victims and victims of forced labour."
She and other detainees are now starting what they call an "all-out strike" – refusing to eat, use facilities or work inside the centre.
The group Detained Voices, which campaigns for those being held in UK immigration centres, says some detainees in Yarl's Wood want an end to indefinite detentions, better healthcare and an amnesty for those who have lived in the UK for 10 years or more.
Following her visit last week, Ms Chakrabarti told Sky News many inside feel desperate and forgotten.
"We went in on a supervised visit – it's very difficult for us to get under skin as undercover journalists can – I think the media need to be allowed regular access to these women. They're not getting proper access to decent legal advice and that's a massive problem and the establishment probably needs to be shut down in due course."
The Home Office says it detains people at Yarl's Wood for the "minimum time possible" and not indefinitely.
It added that last year 92% of people were detained for four months or less and that any decision to extend detention is made on a case-by-case basis.
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Commenting on the hunger strike, it said: "Any detainees who choose to refuse food and fluid are closely monitored by on site healthcare professionals. If detainees choose not to eat meals provided by the immigration detention centre, they also have the option of buying food from the centre's shop."
Last year a report into Yarl's Wood found there had been "significant" improvements after warning the centre was "failing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable women".
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