In a statement, signed by over 25 of the detainees, they demanded

“an official investigation into the death of Jimmy Mubenga during his forcice
deportation to Angola on 12 October 2010. We demand that all those responsible for this brutal crime at the UKBA, G4S and British Airways are
held responsible and punished accordingly.”

Detainees in other detention centres around the country are said to have been disturbed by the news and may well start their own protests.

No Borders opposes the Britain state’s policy of removing asylum seekers to DR Congo which they are now doing again with charter flights such as the one last Thursday carrying 24 people to Kinshasa. As usual, the UK Border Agency trots out it’s usual story about “ensuring that removals are carried out in the most sensitive way possible, treating those being removed with courtesy and dignity”. Yeah, right: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/british-guards-assault-and-racially-abuse-deportees-396034.html

All 9 arrested on the action were released on bail between 9pm and 2am. Their bail conditions include keeping away from Sussex, all UK airports (except for pre-booked flight) and all UK Border Agency facilities (detention centres, reporting centres etc.). They are due in court on March 30th.

Even when they eventually go ahead, delaying such flights can help give time for court injunctions to go through. Plus it is necessary to highlight and subvert the ongoing state practice of deporting people from UK to dangerous areas where they do not want to be sent. The government is using charter flights in part because of the actions taken by detainees, other passengers & supporters against their removal on commercial flights and presumably because they see it as efficient to round people up and move them in groups like farm animals.

More to follow on the hunger strike.

More details on Indymedia:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424368.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424406.html

UPDATE: Mustafa’s removal flight was cancelled but please sign the petition and continue to email and/or send faxes [attachment=20] to the Home Office as this may only be a temporary delay to his removal (Click on read more for full text of email).

Support the campaign to prevent the second attempt by the government to remove Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, Sudanese cameraman, from the UK. Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa from Sudan is detained in Campsfield House IRC and due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 on BMI flight BD 0997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, @ 16.00 to Khartoum. Please sign the petition, and forward the petition address to others:
http://www.petitiononline.com/MustafaM/petition.html
Click on read more for other things you can do.

UPDATE: Mustafa’s removal flight was cancelled but please sign the petition and continue to email and/or send faxes [attachment=20] to the Home Office as this may only be a temporary delay to his removal.

MODEL EMAIL/LETTER/FAX as follows:

Rt. Hon Jacqui Smith, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132
Email: indpublicenquiries@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Dear Ms Smith,

Re: Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, Home Office Ref: M1247034, Port ref: DEU/454546
I have made myself familiar with the case of Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa and would like you to use your discretion to prevent the removal of Mustafa from the UK on Tuesday 2nd December 2008.
Mustafa was a camera man in Sudan, where he was employed to work in the media unit of the Sudanese army, and earlier, for a television station in Sudan. His ID as a camera man/journalist were handed to the Home Office on his arrival in the UK. Mustafa was required to film military operations and as part of his work, he overheard conversations from a senior military officer (rank of Major General) which caused him some concern. This was in 1997 and the senior ranking officer was talking about the killing of civilians in the military operations in the South. Questioning his senior officer, Mustafa was verbally abused ? both his ethnicity and his profession, and he was then dismissed from the Unit. At about this time another cameraman went missing after questioning the scenes that they were required to film.
Mustafa was detained and tortured for six months in one of the regular and ad hoc ?ghost houses?. ?Ghost houses? sprang up everywhere. Any ordinary house could be commandeered to be used as a small prison or place of imprisonment and torture. This is a normal tactic for silencing the local citizens, as everyone learns that anyone can disappear. Mustafa was detained in a room in which he could touch both walls with his arms outstretched, was required to sleep on a bare concrete floor, not permitted visitors or legal advice, and was beaten severely on many occasions. Mustafa is now having treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, suffers from ongoing pain in his legs, and has visual impairment in his left eye after blood collected in the eye after a beating.
Mustafa was released after six months and threatened. He left the area and tried to relocate from Khartoum ( where his family had moved when he was a child) to Al Fashir to be with extended family. Mustafa is of dual ethnicity ? his father is from the Masseleit tribe and his Mother, Dinka. Subsequently, Mustafa became caught up in the military siege of Tawila in Darfur. Many homes were raided as Government militia raided homes looking for anyone they suspected of being in opposition to Bashirs Government. Thousands of people were thus ransacked and raided, rounded up and imprisoned on the most spurious of reasons.
Mustafa was not at home when his Aunts house was raided, but his camera equipment was confiscated, and so too was footage that he had recorded in Darfur which was to be passed to the Justice and Equality Movement for smuggling out of the country.A neighbour recommended to Mustafa that he leave Sudan.
Mustaf is a very highly respected member of the Sudanese community in Nottingham. He is a gentle and kindly man, generous with the very little that he has, to help and assist others. His experiences and what he has witnessed continue to affect his ability to sleep or to rest. Yet under his coaching the Sudanese went into the semi final of the International football league in Nottingham.
We believe that Mustafa is at risk from the regime of President Basher. We believe that what he has witnessed makes him a target to be silenced. We ask that you do not remove Mr Mustafa.
Yours Sincerely,

.

Name:
Address:
City: Postcode: Country:
Date:

Support the campaign to prevent the second attempt by the government to remove Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, Sudanese cameraman, from the UK. Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa from Sudan is detained in Campsfield House IRC and due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 on BMI flight BD 0997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, @ 16.00 to Khartoum. Please sign the petition, and forward the petition address to others:
http://www.petitiononline.com/MustafaM/petition.html

See below for other things you can do. Please remember to include his Home Office ref: M1247034 and let the campaign know of faxes/emails sent:
Friends of Mustafa c/o omer_babikker@hotmail.co.uk
or friendsofmustafa.campaign@gmail.com
See previous info and download model letters (but note change of immigration minister to Phil Woolas):
http://www.nobordersnottingham.org.uk/index.php?newsid=150
http://www.nobordersnottingham.org.uk/index.php?newsid=151
—
Mustafa Belongs to Nottingham

Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa from Sudan is detained in Campsfield House IRC and due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 on BMI flight BD 0997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, @ 16.00 to Khartoum.

This is the second attempt to remove Mustafa this year, and the third attempt to date. Mustafa believes his life will be in danger if he is returned to Sudan. If you speak to his Community in Nottingham you will see, also, how desperately they believe this too.

Mustafa first arrived in the UK in 2004. He is a Sudanese African of dual Dinka/Massaleit heritage – his mother is from the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan, and his father is from the Masseleit tribe in the West of Sudan. For family reasons he grew up in Khartoum, where he was recruited alongside many other men, to be trained to work in two man crews as a War Correspondents. Mustafa worked as a War Correspondent and camera man, employed in the Media Unit of the Sudanese Army. The programme that they worked on was a propaganda exercise by the Government. All Sudanese remember this programme: FI SAHAATUL FIDAA. In 1997 he lost his job after overhearing a high ranking military man (Major General), who was in charge of media in the operation zone, discussing the deaths of civilians during military operations. Mustafa questioned what he had heard and was insulted and verbally abused before being dismissed from his job. Another television War correspondent/cameraman disappeared from the same film unit at about this time.

Mustafa continued his filming work, making short films with students critical of the regime. The films were parodies of the regime and produced for distribution abroad. The smuggled films were discovered and Mustafa was arrested and detained for 6 months, during which time he was tortured: beaten and humiliated, confined to a space in which he could reach both walls with his outstretched arms, sleeping on a bare concrete floor. His left eye is seriously damaged due to the beatings during that time, and he suffers from pains in his legs.

On release, Mustafa was warned that if he continued to make films he would be shot on sight. He was told that he could not leave Sudan.

In 2004 the Sudanese army and the Arab militia attacked Tawila in Darfur, near to where Mustafa was staying in Al Fashir. The town was under military siege, with an arrest campaign of anyone opposed, or suspected of opposition, to the Government, including students and others. Ghost houses sprang up everywhere (these are houses turned into torture centres and prisons). Your neighbours house could be a ghost house. They were everywhere. Passing by with his camera, Mustafa heard the shouts and screams coming from within one of the houses and managed to film what he saw by using a zoom camera lens. A couple of months later, after the attack on Tawila, thousands of homes were searched, people were arrested and disappeared. Everyone was accused of supporting the Darfuri in the war in Darfur. Mustafa?s’ home was searched and his footage of a film that he was making about the atrocities in Darfur, (prepared for the Justice and Equality Movement) was seized.
Mustafa had not been at home during the search, but a neighbour warned him that his camera had been seized and advised him to leave.

Mustafa is a gentle reflective man, with a passion for football. Under his guidance his team went through to the semi finals in a local international Football league this summer. He has suffered psychologically because of the events and incidents that he has observed, and his fears that he may be returned to Sudan. He suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and is treated at the local hospital for this. He also suffers from problems with his vision, and pain in his legs.
Those that know Mustafa know him to be a gentleman: an honest, considerate and kindly man, who does his best, within his limited means, to care for others in the Nottingham Community who are suffering from destitution and fear.

Please take the time to help Mustafa

1) Please send urgent faxes to Nigel Turner, Chief Executive Officer BMI Airways, asking that BMI should not facilitate Home Office enforcement policies, Download ‘model letter’ you can copy/amend/write your own version, if you do so, please remember to include the following details: Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Tuesday 2nd December on BMI flight BD 0997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, @ 16:00hrs, flying to Khartoum
Fax: Fax:: 01332 854875 from outside the UK: + 44 1332 854875

2) Ring BMI Head Office and ask to speak to the CEO, Nigel Turner (Tel: 01332 854000). You probably won’t be able to speak to him personally, but you should be able to leave a message, at least to say that you have sent a fax.

3) Please send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rt. Hon. Phil Woolas, Minister for Immigration, asking that Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, be granted protection in the UK. Please use the attached ‘model letter’ which you can copy/amend/write your own version, if you do so, please remember to include his HO ref: M1247034.
Fax: 020 8760 3132(00 44 20 8760 3132 if you are faxing from outside UK)
Email: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Mustafa?s petition may be signed at http://www.petitiononline.com/MustafaM/petition.html
Please let the campaign know of faxes/emails sent:
Friends of Mustafa
C/o omer_babikker@hotmail.co.uk or friendsofmustafa.campaign@gmail.com

End of Bulletin:
Source for this page:
Friends of Mustafa

“BMI Babi – the airline with a tiny heart”

Read more for full text of the South Wales leaflet including contacts for BMI, and all other airports they operate from. BMI Baby operate from East Midlands airport. Please contact No Borders Nottingham if you wish to campaign against deportation flights.

Shut down BMI day – starting 20th October

After the despicable stepping in of British Midlands Airways (BMI) to fly out Babi Badalov by force after Azerbaijan Airline bowed to pressure not to do it, South Wales No Borders have called for sustained action against BMI. In their leaflet [attachment=19] they say, “On the 20th October let?s hit BMI with everything we?ve got! Then let?s do this on the 20th of every month until BMI see sense.” Please contact No Borders Nottingham if you wish to campaign on this. BMI Baby operate from East Midlands airport. We have renamed this airline“BMI Babi – the airline with a tiny heart”. You can e-mail BMI Chief Executive Officer Nigel Turner at: Nigel.Turner@flybmi.com

Text of leaflet [attachment=19] by South Wales No Borders:

In 2007 the UK government deported 63,140 migrants. Airline companies are a key link in the deportation industry. Without them it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the state to implement this aspect of the migration regime and there can be no migration controls without deportations.

People who are being deported are often handcuffed on the flight and there have been a number reports of physical assaults on deportees by the security personnel who escort them.

On 20th September 2008, No Borders South Wales activist Babi Badalov was deported on a BMI flight to Azerbaijan, where has experienced physical abuse and state persecution. Despite hundreds of telephone calls, emails and faxes to BMI raising objections to the removal, BMI chose to ignore this and ensured the deportation took place.

BMI is the UK?s second largest full service airline with reported profits of £15.5 million in 2007. The airline is responsible for carrying migrants who are being deported from the UK against their will by the British Government.

BMI employees told those ringing on the day that BMI could not refuse to fly Babi and it was out of their control. However, other airlines have refused to fly deportees in the past including XL Airways who announced in 2007 that they would no longer carry failed asylum-seekers who were being forcibly removed from the UK.

BMI must be made aware of the impact of their actions on the lives of the people they deport and how their image and business will be affected if they continue this practice. We need to let them know that they can not take part in such activities without consequences.

No Borders South Wales are calling for a sustained campaign against BMI. We call on BMI to no longer take part in the forced deportation of migrants.

Contact BMI and register your disapproval at their role in deporting people back to places they do not wish to go back to, for whatever the reason this may be. Urge BMI to follow the other airlines who have taken an ethical stance and who refuse to carry out any more deportations.

On the 20th October let?s hit BMI with everything we?ve got! Then let?s do this on the 20th of every month until BMI see sense.

BMI Contact Details

Head office: Donington Hall, Castle Donington, Derby. DE74 2SB

E-mail BMI Chief Executive Officer Nigel Turner at: Nigel.Turner@flybmi.com

Switchboard
Telephone: 01332 854000
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm

Customer Relations
Tel: 01332 854321
Fax: 01332 854875
Opening hours: Mon- Fri 9.30am- 4.30pm

Reservations and general enquiries
Telephone: 01332 854854 & 01332 648181
Fax: 01709 314993
Opening hours: Mon to Sun 7am to 9pm

Group reservations
Telephone: 01332 854500
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 9am to 5.30pm

Baggage claims
Telephone: 0115 8517005
Opening hours: Mon to Sun 8am to 8pm

Highflyers
Telephone: 01332 854454
Fax: 01332 854238

Special assistance
Telephone: 0131 3445600

Textphone for the deaf: 01332 854015
Opening hours Mon to Sun 7am to 9pm

Diamond Club enquiries and reservations
Telephone: 01332 854274
Fax: 01623 724099
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 8am to 8pm

Refunds
Telephone 01332 854534
Opening hours Mon to Fri 9am to 3.30pm

Technical Support (online booking queries)
Telephone: 01509 686628
Opening hours: Mon to Sat 8am to 7pm, Sun
8am to 8pm

Charter Department
Telephone: 01332 854656
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm

Bmi baby reservations
Telephone: 01332 648181
Opening hours: Mon to Sun 8am to 8pm

BMI flights operate from the following UK Airports:
Aberdeen, Belfast (City), Birmingham, Bristol, Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Jersey, Leeds Bradford, London City, London Gatwick, London Heathrow,
Manchester, Newcastle International, Norwich

No Borders South Wales is a collective of people who organise
against migration controls and for the freedom of movement for all.
We work on a non-hierarchical, anti-authoritarian basis, using
consensus decision making. noborderswales.org.uk

UPDATE: Mustafa is still here in England, but please continue to fax letters to the home secretary and immigration minister on his behalf. He is still in Campsfield house removal centre and the home office say they have no plans to release him.

Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa, who has been in UK since June 2004, was detained when he reported at his reporting centre in Loughborough this week. He is a Sudanese African of dual Dinka/Massaleit heritage ? his mother is from the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan, and his father is from the Masseleit tribe in the West of Sudan. He criticised the Sudanese regime though his film work for which he was tortured: beaten and humiliated. Mustafa was detained last year when the Home Office were rounding up Sudanese prior to the second HGMO case last year. Another Appeal is set for November this year on the issue of torture of returnees to Sudan. But, as is typical of the Home Office before Appeals are heard, removals are rushed through. Mustafa has been given a Removal Notice set for Saturday 4th October, with BMI flight number BD 997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, flying to Beirut, and then on to Khartoum. We urge you to write on his behalf, to the Home Secretary, the Immigration Minister, and the Airline. Mustafa should not be returned to Sudan. Follow read more link for how to help. Model letters: [attachment=17] and [attachment=18]

Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa

UPDATE: Mustafa is still here in England, but please continue to fax letters to the home secretary and immigration minister on his behalf. He is still in Campsfield house removal centre and the home office say they have no plans to release him.

Home Office Ref: M1247034
Port ref: DEU/454546
DOB: 1/1/1967
Arrived UK: 13/6/2004

Model letters: [attachment=17] and [attachment=18]

Mustafa was detained when he reported at his reporting centre in Loughborough this week. Many of you will remember that Mustafa was dertained last year when the Home Office were rounding up Sudanese prior to the second HGMO case last year. Another Appeal is set for November this year on the issue of torture of returnees to Sudan.

Mustafa first arrived in the UK in 2004. He is a Sudanese African of dual Dinka/Massaleit heritage ? his mother is from the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan, and his father is from the Masseleit tribe in the West of Sudan.

Mustafa worked as a camera man for a television station in Sudan, and also for the military media unit. In 1997 he lost his job after overhearing a high ranking military man (Major General), who was in charge of media in the operation zone, discussing the deaths of civilians during military operations. Mustafa questioned what he had heard and was insulted and verbally abused before being dismissed from his job. Another television cameraman disappeared from the same film unit at about this time.

Mustafa continued his filming work, making short films with students critical of the regime. The films were parodies of the regime and produced for distribution abroad. The smuggled films were discovered and Mustafa was arrested and detained for 6 months, during which time he was tortured: beaten and humiliated, confined to a space in which he could reach both walls with his outstretched arms, sleeping on a bare concrete floor. His left eye is seriously damaged due to the beatings during that time.

On release, Mustafa was warned that if he continued to make films he would be shot on sight. He was told that he could not leave Sudan. Moving to Al Fashir to stay with a relative, Mustafa continued to make short films of family events, parties, and continued to make a living in this way between 1999-2004.

In 2004 the Sudanese army and the Arab militia attacked Tawila in Darfur, near to where Mustafa was staying in Al Fashir. The town was under military seige, with an arrest campaign of anyone opposed, or suspected of opposition, to the Government, including s students and others. Ghost houses sprang up everywhere (these are houses turned into torture centers and prisons). Your neighbors house could be a ghost house. They were everywhere. Passing by with his camera, Mustafa heard the shouts and screams coming from within one of the houses and managed to film what he saw by using a zoom camera lens. A couple of months later, after the attack on Tawila, thousands of homes were searched, people were arrested and disappeared. Everyone was accused of supporting the Darfuri in the war in Darfur. Mustafas’ home was searched and his footage of a film that he was making about the atrocities in Darfur, (prepared for the Justice and Equality Movement) was seized.

Mustafa had not been at home during the search, but a neighbor warned him that his camera had been seized and advised him to leave.

Mustafa is a gentle reflective man, with a passion for football. Under his guidance his team went through to the semi finals in a local international Football league this summer. He has suffered psychologically because of the events and incidents that he has observed, and his fears that he may be returned to Sudan. He suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and is treated at the local hospital for this. He also suffers from visual problems, and pain in his legs.

Mustafa has been given a Removal Notice set for Saturday 4th October, with BMI flight number BD 997 from Heathrow Terminal 1, flying to Beirut, and then on to Khartoum

Those that know Mustafa know him to be a gentleman: an honest, considerate and kindly man, who does his best, within his limited means, to care for others in the Community who are suffering from destitution and fear. We urge you to write on his behalf, to the Home Secretary, the Immigration Minister, and the Airline. Mustafa should not be returned to Sudan.

His solicitor is still putting representations together so please, I know that it must seem like there are many appeals at the moment, please write, phone, fax the Home Office and BMI. We know that BMI Baby are not sympathetic to cases in the past so please do all that you can. I have attached a phot of Mustafa at the football tournament – I am sure that many of you will know/ recognise him.

Please send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rt Hon. Liam Byrne, Minister for Immigration, asking that Mustafa Abdulrahim Mustafa is granted protection in the UK. Please remember to include Mustafas Home Office Ref. Number M1247034.

Fax.020 8760 3132 (0044 20 8760 3132 if you are faxing from outside the UK)

Email: privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

1) Please send urgent faxes to Nigel Turner, Chief Executive Officer BMI Airways, asking that BMI should not facilitate Home Office enforcement policies, using the attached ‘model letter’ (ElsaIMbayeBMI.doc) you can copy/amend/write your own version, if you do so, please remember to include the following details: Elsa Temesgen Imbaye and her 11 year old daughter, Bethlehem due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Wednesday, 1 October 2008 on British Midland Airways flight BD913 from Heathrow @ 14:15 to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Fax: Fax:: 01332 854875 from outside the UK: + 44 1332 854875

2) Ring BMI Head Office and ask to speak to the CEO, Nigel Turner (Tel: 01332 854000). You probably won’t be able to speak to him personally, but you should be able to leave a message, at least to say that you have sent a fax.

Please let Mustafas campaign know of any emails/faxes that you send omer_babikker@hotmail.co.uk

UPDATE: Removal stayed. Selina and her children were arriving home [/b]in Nottingham as of 4th Oct, after they were detained for removal to Ghana on Friday. A good neighbour drove to London to collect them as soon as they knew she was being released. Selina has seen that 940 supporters signed a petition in support of her and the children. Brian (aged is very happy ‘to be out of the Dungeon’, and we are hoping that little Chelsea (5) will start eating again soon, because she wouldn’t eat in Yarl’s Wood (Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire). The campaign has learnt is that another family with young children ‘disappeared’ from the same school (St Patricks, in Wilford) over the summer holidays, and an older sister bringing a younger sibling to school mentioned that her family had beein in Yarlswood for three months last year. This is just one primary school… we need to keep the Campaign going for Selina, and we need to think about what else is going on in our midst.

Evening Post article:
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Mea…il/article.html

Selina Adda and her two children, Brian (aged and Chelsea (aged 4) were detained after Immigration arrived at their home in The Meadows (Nottingham South) yesterday morning, just as they were getting ready to go to their school, St Patricks, in Wilford. Selina is from Ghana. She is now ill in Yarlswood, and her little girl is refusing to eat. Yesterday she just asked for orange juice, and Selina was explaining that there is none. Friends and supporters of Selina have put together a letter to the Immigration Minister, and a petition is up and running online
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/asf03oct/Selina and her children (The Adda Family: Home Office ref: A1290971) face removal to Ghana on Friday, BA 81 at 14.15 3rd October: LONDON HEATHROW–>ACCRA, GHANA (ACC). Use this model letter [attachment=16] to write to Liam Byrne.
Please send copies of what you have sent to the campaign address:
St Saviour’s Cottage, St Saviour’s Gardens, The Meadows, Nottingham, NG2 3HL
tel: 0115 9567686 email: selina_adda@live.com or to Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum. Read more for full info and text of model letter. Complain to British Airways also (again, read more for phone/fax details).

This news comes as the Home Office has been forced to recognise that there are hundreds of claims by asylum-seekers of abuse and assault in detention centres and during removals, and start an investigation.

UPDATE: Removal stayed. Selina and her children were arriving home [/b]in Nottingham as of 4th Oct, after they were detained for removal to Ghana on Friday. A good neighbour drove to London to collect them as soon as they knew she was being released. Selina has seen that 940 supporters signed a petition in support of her and the children. Brian (aged is very happy ‘to be out of the Dungeon’, and we are hoping that little Chelsea (5) will start eating again soon, because she wouldn’t eat in Yarl’s Wood (Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire). The campaign has learnt is that another family with young children ‘disappeared’ from the same school (St Patricks, in Wilford) over the summer holidays, and an older sister bringing a younger sibling to school mentioned that her family had beein in Yarlswood for three months last year. This is just one primary school… we need to keep the Campaign going for Selina, and we need to think about what else is going on in our midst.

Selina Adda and her two children, Brian (aged and Chelsea (aged 4) were detained after Immigration arrived at their home in The Meadows yesterday morning, just as they were getting ready to go to their school, St Patricks, in Wilford.

Friends and supporters of Selina have put together a letter to the Immigration Minister, and a petition is up and running online http://www.PetitionOnline.com/asf03oct/
Selina and her children (The Adda Family: Home Office ref: A1290971) face removal to Ghana on Friday, BA 81 at 14.15 3rd October: LONDON HEATHROW–>ACCRA, GHANA (ACC). Use this model letter [attachment=16] to write to Liam Byrne. Please send copies of what you have sent to the campaign address:
St Saviour’s Cottage, St Saviour’s Gardens, The Meadows, Nottingham, NG2 3HL
tel: 0115 9567686 email: selina_adda@live.com or to Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum. See below full info and text of model letter. Complain to British Airways also (again, read more for phone/fax details).

Selina is from Ghana. She is Catholic but was betrothed to a man thrity years her senior when she was just a schoolgirl. Selinas family were very poor and couldnt afford the school fees and a wealthy, polygamous local business man offered to pay all the fees and support the family, in exhcange for a promise that Selina would marry him when she left school. Selina did not want to marry a man so much older and she didnt want to convert to Islam ( the faith of the man she was betrothed to) and she ran away. At first, looked after by a befriender in Ghana, but eventually obliged to leave the country.

Selina hasnt been able to prove the relationship with this man – its a difficult one because domestic arrangements dont come signed sealed and delivered in such a neat evidential way, but Selina is very, very afraid. Selina claims that after she left the country her sister was offered in her place. her sister took her own life last year. Unfortunately despite a suicide note, the Home Office will not give the benefit of the doubt that this was written by Selinas sister.

Now faced with removal, Selina is very afraid that her daughter, just five years ol, will be subjected to FGM in Ghana. Although the practice has been outlawed, all the evidence suggests that it is still common place. it is certainly practised in ethnic groups of Selina, her betrothed, and the little girls father.

Selina is now ill in Yarlswood, and her little girl is refusing to eat. Yesterday she just asked for orange juice, and Selina was explaining that there is none.

Selina and her children ( who are neighbours of Amdani), ask you, please, to sign the petition, to write to the Home Secretary and to do whatever you can for this young family, who face removal to Ghana on Friday, BA 81 at 14.15 3rd October, and to let me know or recive copies of what you have sent.

—

Dear Liam Byrne MP
Minister for Immigration
Home Office
50 Queen Anne?s Gate
London
SW1H 9AT

30 September 2008

Dear Mr Byrne,

The Adda Family: Home Office ref: A1290971

Selina and her two children Brian and Chelsea Tumfour are currently at Yarlswood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire awaiting deportation on Friday. Their asylum claim has been rejected.

Selina Adda was born on 25 May 1974 in Tamale in Northern Ghana into a Catholic family in part of the war-like Dagomba tribe. This tribe is ruled by strong chieftains and follows Muslim customs, including female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is common in northern Ghana and, though it was made illegal in 1994, there are few prosecutions of those guilty of the crime.

Selina was betrothed to a Muslim chieftain of the tribe who was 30 years her senior and already married to two wives. She fled to the capital Accra where a pharmacist took pity on her and gave her a job working in his shop. Several years later members of her tribe close to the chieftain spotted her and her whereabouts were made known.

Her mother visited her in Accra and told her that if she didn?t return home and marry him, the chieftain would kill her mother. With the help of the pharmacist she left Accra to claim asylum in the UK. By this time she had met another man and had a child, Brian, in September 2000, and was pregnant with her second child Chelsea who was born in the UK in December 2004. She has no other relatives in the UK.

In 2005, an advert appeared in a Ghanaian newspaper offering a reward for information on Selina. When the family found out Selina had arrived in the UK, they informed the chieftain and he agreed to marry their other daughter. She could not face marrying him and took her own life by taking poison. Her death certificate says she died of food
poisoning. The Home Office refused to accept the suicide letter as evidence.

The firm Paragon Law represented her, but her asylum claim was rejected on 7 December 2007. Her solicitor said there was not enough evidence to show that the chieftain would still pursue her and she could live safely in other parts of Ghana. But people who make threats don?t tend to put it in writing in official documents. She and the children are afraid to go back.

Selina is seeking asylum in the UK because she is betrothed to a man she does not want to marry. She does not believe that the authorities have the power to protect her if members of the chieftain?s tribe discover her again. Nor will they be able to protect Chelsea from FGM, despite the fact that it is technically illegal. Tribal customs mean that if she is discovered again in Ghana, she will be forced to marry a polygamous man based on promises she made when she was just a child and there will be an expectation that Selina will be required to adopt the faith of her husband. Selina rightly believes that going back to Ghana would place her and her children at significant risk.

Since Selina has been in the UK, both her mother and her sister have died. She has no close relatives in Ghana. She suffers from severe depression and was prescribed medication by her GP, which she is still taking. Social services have also been involved in her case. Under their advice, she attended an access to nursing course at Basford Hall College last year and gained a distinction. This year, she had just started taking Maths GCSE in order to get onto a nursing course. Selina?s children are achieving at school and are well settled.

Please allow the Adda family to remain the UK on compassionate grounds.

Yours sincerely,

Name_____________________________________________________

Address____________________________________________________

Postcode_____________________________________________________

Country_____________________________________________________

Date_________________________________________________________

British Airways.

Please fax / call British Airways to express concern and ask them not to take part in the deportation. This can work – deportations have been stopped when airlines have refused to take people. Phone calls may also be effective – see customer relations phone number below.

British Airways Chief Executive Officer (Willy Walsh):
Fax: 020 8759 4314
email: Company.Secretary@ba.com

British Airways Press Office
Fax: 0208 738 9838, or
email: media.relations@ba.com

BA Customer Relations:
Telephone: 0844 493 0 787
Fax: 020 8759 4314

Flight is LONDON HEATHROW–>ACCRA, GHANA (ACC), BA81 at 14.15 on Friday October 3rd.
Selina Adda & Family: Home Office ref: A1290971
heathrow immigration office tel: 0208 745 4700

BABI+HELLO FROM HELLBAIJAN
Fakkk you miss jacquyi locksmith from hellbaijan
fakk you united king kong yankee go khomebashi
will not died n kill myself
will conitine except you giving me adventure pain
i am live but its very terrible place to be here
i am affraid of my family come find me here
i lav all all you there
you all so good and nice plesant to me
–
Babi Badalov

Babi’s is not an isolated case. John ?Bosco? Nyombi was deported on a flight in Entebbe, Uganda on Friday evening. See: http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/

We wish you luck Babi and John! Until these deportations are stopped it is the politicians like Jacqui ‘lock’ Smith & Liam Byrne, the UK Border Agency officials and their private contractors, and not least airlines like the defunct XL airways, Virgin (never done it before, honest), BA (British don’t care-ways) & now BMI ‘Babi’ (the airline with a tiny heart) who have (and will have) blood on their hands if the threats to the lives of these and other gay deportees become a reality.

*Note: If you are considering local action, BMI Baby may claim they are not the same as BMI (who deported Babi from Heathrow on flight BD929), which is, of course, nonsense – they’re the ‘low cost’ subsidiary of British Midland (who also bought British Mediterranean Airways BMED in Jan 2007), and so it’s little different than Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Nigeria. Yeah Baby! Nice try.

Fazzel the leader of the Campsfield hunger strikers contacted the Federation from Northern Iraq to tell the story of his forcible deportation. Fazzel was removed with approximately 51 other Iraqi Kurds late last night (17 September) on the HamburgInternational plane. Fazzel is still very badly injured from the failed 15 September deportation two days before when during a disturbance on the plane a Home Office Guard had pushed Fazzel?s head through one of the windows on the plane. These events lead to the 15 September deportation flight being cancelled. Following this assault Fazzel had been taken back to Colnbrook and promised a doctor, but no onecame to treat his injuries prior to his deportation on the 17 September.

The Hamburg International plane landed in Erbil at 1am on the 18 September. As the asylum seekers were taken off the plane there were approximately two hundred Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) troops waiting for them. Fazzel reported thatone of the asylum seekers dressed in white clothes (Fazzel believes he had been on hunger strike at another detention centre) was separated off from the other asylum seekers and escorted away by four of the KRG troops. Fazzel still does not know where he has been taken or if he has been released yet.

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR, Coalition to Stop Deportation to Iraq-CSDIRAQ
For more information please contact:
Dashty Jamal 078 5603 2991, Karen Johnson 078 04891082 Samera Ahmad 078 2842 4164 email: sarahp107@hotmail.com,Karen.Johnson@btinternet.com, d.jamal@ntlworld.com

POBOX 1575,ILFORD IG1 3BZ, LONDON, UK
Tel:0044 7856032991
www.csdiraq.com
www.federationifir.com

Important update by International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR : Forcible Deportation of Iraqi asylum seekers ended in violence

Earlier this year, in a press release by the Respect Nigerians Coalition, it was explained how a man Ayodeji Omotade had been charged with threatening/abusive/insulting/disorderly behaviour towards British Airways (BA) crew, as a result of intervening in a violent deportation flight to Lagos on March 27, 2008, from Heathrow, London. Despite widespread public protest, including internationally, the case against Mr Omotade is going ahead, although his trial (due to take place Tomorrow Thursday 18th September at Uxbridge Magistrates Court) has been adjourned ? no new date yet. He sends his heartfelt thanks everyone who wrote messages of support.

Join a peaceful protest the day before at 12 noon, WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER, 2008, at British Airways PLC, Waterside (HAA3), Harmondworth, UB7 0GB.

Mr Omotade asks: “What would you do if someone on your flight was
distressed and crying out for help? Would you stay silent or would you
speak? I spoke and B A didn’t like it. This type of corporate tyranny
must be challenged and stopped.”

More details: Respect Nigerians Coalition: http://www.respectnigerians.com/BoycottBA.pdf

Note: the recently failed charter airline & tour operator XL Airways was previously forced by activist pressure to pull out from deportation flights. More pressure can and must be put on airlines not to participate in forced removals and deportations.