Shut it Down
The Scottish Executive's shameful connivance with the British State's actions on asylum and refugees continues...Charity Mutebwa, the Ugandan woman incarcerated in Dungavel Removal Centre, Lanarkshire who went on hunger strike, faces imminent deportation. The Home Office intends to fly her to Uganda on Tuesday 18 October on flight BA63 at 19.25 from Heathrow airport.
Scotland Against Criminalising Communities has issued an urgent appeal to stop the deportation.
Scotland Against Criminalising Communities write :
"Charity Mutebwa was taken to Uganda after her Rwandan parents were slaughtered in the genocide of 1994. As supporters of an opposition party, her husband and brother were killed. She was detained, and was repeatedly gang-raped by government soldiers.
She escaped and fled to the UK but her account of her experiences was dismissed by the Home Office and the courts. Her case was badly handled by her legal representatives – she later discovered the person representing her was a translator not a solicitor. The firm then claimed to have no knowledge of her case and that they did not have her documents, so she could not get another solicitor to pursue her claim.
Charity was detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre pending her focible return to Uganda. Here, together with a number of other Ugandan & Zimbabwean women, she began a hunger strike. Her deportation order should have been stopped when a new solicitor issued legal proceedings the day before she was due to go. However, she was still taken to Heathrow airport. It was only when she insisted on calling her lawyer that the Home Office confirmed she should not be deported.
Charity was extremely weak and sick from her hunger strike but instead of returning to Yarl’s Wood, she was taken on a gruelling 12-hour journey to Dungavel Detention Centre in Scotland. She was not allowed to leave the van.
Charity’s new lawyer is pursuing her asylum claim. However, an application for Judicial Review has just been turned down and she has been issued with a removal date of 18th October.
Charity Mutebwa has no family or home, let alone job, to return to.
Women who seek asylum have been driven to take drastic actions because they fear for their lives if returned to countries they fled. They believe they will suffer further persecution, and even death. Many were raped by police or soldiers. Some, like Charity Mutebwa, witnessed their loved ones being killed in front of them. Yet despite their compelling evidence, rape survivors are routinely refused safety and protection in the UK."
SACC and other campaigners are urging people to write immediately to:
Charity Mutebwa, Dungavel Removal Centre, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire MK41 6HL
Write to or phone your MP. Charity’s Home Office Reference Number is M1210512
Immigration Minister Tony McNulty Fax: 020-7219 2417 Telephone: 020-7219 4108.
In the recent past airline workers and deportation resisters have taken direct action at airports to stop people being forcibly removed from the country. If all else fails such actions may be Charity's last chance.
See also: Scotland Against Criminalising Communities. and Indymedia Scotland, here.
