News on the South Wales 3:
EMILY
As you already know, Emily was taken straight into detention after her arrival in Taiwan.
We have been in touch with her lawyer there who informed us that Emily had become ill whilst in detention and had been taken to hospital.
She is visited almost daily by her mum who has been allowed to take in toiletries etc
Her solicitor has written to say that the conditions in detention ‘cannot be compared to Britain’, they ‘are just ok’.
While Emily can receive visitors, she cannot receive phone calls, although we are writing to her.
We remain hugely concerned about Emily’s situation and predicament and are doing what we can to support her from here.
NSY
NSY is now in Iraq.
We had prepared a campaign for our friend, but we didn’t realise how much it seems the government was determined to make sure he flew that day.
We think that the Home Office might be determined to make sure people go on the flights they book because it’s difficult to get agreement from the Iraqi government to accept people. This is because the Iraqi parliament had decided not to accept refugees flown to Iraq against their will, and a law was passed recently that should have made NSY’s acceptance illegal under Iraqi law.
On the morning of his flight, he received a letter from the court which he, at first, believed to be good news. It turned out to be a standard letter in response to a Judicial Review application, saying that there was 9 days for further documents and evidence – not much good when he was dues to be on a plane later that day.
On that day, NSY was snatched away from us in what felt like almost a blink – one minute he was informing us that he was refusing to go – this happened 3 times and then we received a desperate call. He was at the booking out desk about to be loaded into the van with 5 other men to be taken to Heathrow. 8 enforcement officers came to put him in the van.
We wanted to put pressure on Royal Jordanian airlines who we felt had not had many anti-deportation campaigns and so may be responsive to our friend’s plight and so we stepped up the phone blockade, as well as organising a last minute trip to the airport to speak to the airline in person and because we felt it was all we could do by then. It’s still difficult for us to write about what happened to him. Once we knew he was gone it was just the worst feeling in the world, we couldn’t bare to think of him on that plane for 6 hours or more with a long stay in a secure detention room in Queen Aliya airport in Amman before the final part of the arduous journey to Baghdad, not knowing what was next in store for him. After a sleepless night, we heard that he’d landed in Queen Aliya airport in Jordan, and a person we were in contact with there had tried to see him but not been able to. He was then forced to fly on from Amman to Baghdad. At Baghdad, he was held, by airport authorities for hours, to check why he had arrived without papers – airports not being somewhere you can really just walk off a plane and leave, especially in a virtual war zone – just the day before the airport had been attacked with rockets and forced to close.
From the airport NSY was transferred to another police station some 10 kilometres from the airport. This detention lasted until sometime this week – he had managed to pay his way out of the police station, where he was detained since the day he arrived. These payments are common in Iraq, and NSY is only on bail, not fully free, which means more payments will be required. While being able to see his family has brought some sense of hope to NSY in a desperate situation, he still faces a difficult and dangerous journey across Iraq to his village where he is far from safe, and then will have to decide what he can do next in a land he hasn’t been in for nearly four years. He’s been in touch with us fairly often and we are still offering support and solidarity in whatever way we can.
OSAMA
As already reported, Osama didn’t fly on 12th January, as he informed the staff at Campsfield that he had to wait for his fiance to bring his belongings.
He was warned that, that next time, a ‘special team’ would be brought to remove him.
Meanwhile, a Fresh Claim was submitted and new Removal Directions were issued for Thursday 6th February.
We were very concerned that the decision on the Fresh Claim would either be a refusal, which could only be challenged by a Judicial Review, or even worse, the usual would happen, which is that the refusal would come minutes before the flight, while Osama was sitting on the plane, with no time for any Judicial Review.
On the Tuesday before the proposed removal date, 3 of us took a trip up to Campsfield in Oxfordshire, to visit Osama and take his personal belongings. It was really great to see him, even though the visiting room was freezing. And it was very emotional when we had to say goodbye.
The next day we waited……then in the afternoon Osama called to say the ‘ticket had been cancelled’. Although these are the best words in the world that you can hear when your friend is detained with RDs, we still held back – we wanted it in black and white. Some two hours later, we heard from Osama’s solicitor and Osama himself to say the fax had been received and the ticket was indeed cancelled. We were overjoyed, but it didn’t stop us calling him as soon as we could the next day to make doubly sure he hadn’t been removed .
So our campaign has been able to relax for a few days as we recover. We hope so much that the Fresh Claim will be successful, but Osama is far, far from out of the woods – if the Fresh Claim is refused and any Judicial Review is unsuccessful there will be new Removal Directions – so if you’re able to help us more with the campaign, please keep an eye on Osama’s website and facebook page for any developments……
and @SWal3Solidarity for news on all campaigns.
Thank you.
mymuststay 