ACTION ALERT . . . ACTION ALERT. . .ACTION ALERT…..ACTION ALERT STOP the deportation of Jamila Ali Sami
Sat 27 June on Virgin Flight No:VS671 to Nairobi, Kenya at 19.15
Our dear friend and active member of the All African Women’s Group (AAWG) was detained on June 23 while signing at the UK Border Agency at Communication House. She is currently being held in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
Ms Sami is from the island of Koyama off the coast of Somalia. She and her family were victims of repeated attacks by rival clans. Ms Sami and her mother were brutally raped during these attacks. After her parents were killed Ms Sami was forced to flee leaving her three children behind. The Home Office claim that Ms Sami is from Kenya and on Saturday plan to send her back to a country where she has never lived and with which she has no connection.
Ms Sami arrived in the UK on 25 June 2007 and was immediately detained when she claimed asylum. Her case was “fast-tracked” in detention and she had no time to gather expert evidence. She was unrepresented at her Appeal Hearing and could not understand or speak English. Her claim was refused by notoriously biased immigration judge Warren L Grant[1] on 12 July 2007. Ms Sami was eventually released after five months when the Kenyan High Commission interviewed her and confirmed that she was not from Kenya. A friend referred her to Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP). She was initially given NASS[2] accommodation, but after three weeks was made homeless. A volunteer with BWRAP provided housing and food for Ms Sami through her network of friends.
Despite compelling evidence the Home Office refuse to believe what happened to Ms Sami and are disputing both her nationality and identity. They claim she is another woman and want to return her to Kenya. She has recently changed her solicitor and her new legal representatives, Birnberg Peirce were in the process of gathering expert evidence for a fresh claim when she was detained.
As a rape and torture survivor Ms Sami should never have been detained. Home Office Guidelines state that vulnerable people will only be detained in “exceptional circumstances”. According to Detention Centre Rule 35 “Where a request is received from a detainee/or his/her Legal Representatives that the detainee be released from detention in order to obtain an independent medical report, the officer responsible for managing detention should consider the request in light of all the facts.” Ms Sami’s solicitors have told the Home Office that she has an appointment with a country expert on the 13 July who can corroborate her testimony and got the response that “she will be gone from the UK by then.”
Ms Sami has been supported for over 18 months by a close-knit community in Peckham. From when she first moved there people dedicated themselves to teaching her English, with such success that Ms Sami is now training to be a midwife. She has made close friends and is dearly loved. She depends on the unique support and counselling services provided by BWRAP all of which would be unavailable to her if she is sent back to Kenya where she has never lived. Ms Sami is committed to helping other women in her situation and takes time between her studies to volunteer on ecology projects. Ms Sami wants the right to remain in the UK, find her children, be able to rebuild her life and to care for others by becoming a midwife.
Further details, or to interview Ms Sami contact:
Paul Kelly,
paul.surplus@googlemail.com
Black Women’s Rape Action Project
bwrap@dircon.co.uk 07980 659 831
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[1] For more information on Warren L Grant see Misjudging Rape: Breaching Gender Guidelines and International Law in Asylum Appeals A Dossier of how adjudicators (now known as immigration judges) flout international law and even their own guidelines when they consider the asylum claims of women and girls seeking safety and protection from rape.
http://www.allwomencount.net/Publications/pamphlets.htm
[2] National Asylum Support Services - a section of the UK (BIA), which is responsible for supporting and accommodating people seeking asylum while their cases are being dealt with.
What you can do to help:
Write to the Home Secretary and Ms Sami’s MP, Harriet Harman, asking them to release her so that she can fully present her case to the immigration authorities. Contact Virgin Airlines asking them not to collaborate with Ms Sami’s removal.
Rt. Hon. Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for the Home Office
Fax: 020 7035 3262
public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk make clear you want your letter to be passed to his office
Rt Hon Harriet Harman,
harmanh@parliament.uk,
enquiries@geo.gov.uk make clear you want your letter to be passed to her office
VIRGIN:
customer.relations@fly.virgin.com or fax o844 209 8708
Press office 01293 747 373
katie.francis@fly.virgin.com
Please send copies of any letters to:
Paul Kelly,
paul.surplus@googlemail.com
Black Women’s Rape Action Project
bwrap@dircon.co.uk
Legal Action for Women
law@crossroadswomen.net
Please sign BWRAP’s Asylum from Rape Petition
for the official recognition of rape as torture and persecution
.
Stop this deportation! 
Something doesn't quite gel about this case lol. I mean Home office deal with Somalis a lot and have come to know them and their situation very well.
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