[4] Yarl's Wood opened on 19 November 2001 with a second wing added in January 2002, creating a capacity for over 900 people, making it the largest immigration detention centre in Europe at the time.

Chris Hyman, then Serco chief executive, said winning the £85m contract "recognises our ability to care for a wide range of detainees".

The hunger strike was escalated when, according to a Guardian report, "70 women taking part in a protest were locked in an airless corridor without water or toilet facilities.

"[17] On 20 April 2015, a hunger strike began with 31 couples from the Hummingbird Unit in regard to a death of a male detainee Pinakeen Patel, aged 33 from Gujarat, India.

On 25 May in solidarity to an Indian Gujarati lady from Hummingbird Unit suffering from serious medical conditions, a sudden hunger strike was called out by the fellow detainees.

[19] A government letter in response to the hunger strike stated that it could "lead to your case being accelerated and your removal from the UK taking place sooner".

"[25] The following month, Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria Vera Baird expressed her support for an independent inquiry.

[27] On 11 January 2011, the High Court ruled that the continued detention of the children of failed asylum seekers at Yarl's Wood was unlawful.

[29] In September 2005 Manuel Bravo, an asylum seeker from Angola, hanged himself while in detention awaiting deportation with his 13-year-old son following a dawn raid at his home in Leeds.

[33] In April 2023, a large group of detainees escaped from the centre by using gym equipment to scale the external security fence.

The escape, manhunt and subsequent investigations featured on an episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody which aired on 6 January 2025.

The report found evidence of a number of racist incidents, although noted that staff had been disciplined following publication of the journalists findings, and that an allegation of assault had not been properly investigated.

[39] In February 2006, the Chief Inspector of Prisons published an inquiry into the quality of health care at Yarl's Wood.

[43] This follows earlier allegations in 2005 by the Chief Inspector of Prisons that children were being damaged by being held in the institution, citing in particular an autistic five-year-old who had not eaten properly in several days.

[44] In 2012, whistleblower Noel Finn raised concerns about abuse towards patients with mental illness and who are detained in Yarl's Wood, most had not received adequate assessment or treatment.

[47] In August 2015 the chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick described Yarl's Wood as a "place of national concern" and said that decisive action was needed to ensure that women were only detained "as a last resort".