Workers' Liberty

The Khanali family

From a leaflet issues by the Khanali family’s lawyers, Bury Law Centre

The racism of immigration controls operates in many different ways. One way is to take asylum seekers out of the welfare state and make them dependant on a new poor law where they are involuntarily dispersed throughout the country and supported at 70% of income support level. The whole scheme is run by a Home Office body – the National Asylum Support Service (NASS)
The latest way controls operate is through section 9 of the 2004 Immigration and Asylum Act. This allows NASS to order the eviction onto the streets of failed asylum seekers with children who persist in pursuing their case and refuse to return to the country from which they fled
The Khanali family , now living in Bury, are in this situation. The family fled from Iran where they were under threat from the religious security forces. They are Christians. The Home Office refused their application – just like they refuse most applications.
Now NASS want to evict the family onto the streets – one consequence being that Bury council may take the children into care thus splitting the family. The children are 6 and 6 months. The family's legal supporters think the council are obliged to keep the children with the children with the family.
The Home Office has won their latest attempt to make the family destitute. This is despite an appeal which the family won! This was only a few days ago.
• The family has acute illnesses. Zoreh ( mother) has long term depression made worse by fear of homelessness. Vahid, (father), has severe back and heart problems. The child Mobina is 7 months old. Our position is that no family, no one, should be treated in this way. For this family it is cruelty.
• At the previous hearing the Home Office denied receiving any letters of support for the family. However the local church was able to provide a letter of acknowledgement from the Home Office! Our position is that the Home Office and NASS are treating the Khanalis with disdain.
• This case offends what ordinary people would call a breach of human rights.

Come to the public meeting against section 9 on September 3rd at the Friends Meeting House, Manchester City Centre, 2pm-4pm

Join the Khanalis on the national demonstration against deportation in Bolton on 1 October. Assemble 12 noon at Lever Edge Lane CP School, Bolton BL3 3HP

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Samina Altaf and her children: here to stay!

Samina Altaf and her two children , Aqsa, and Sumama, fled Pakistan after domestic abuse. All three suffer from severe rickets and are receiving medical support in this country. Nonetheless the Home Office want to deport the family. Also the so-called National Asylum Support Service (a wing of the Home Office) wants to evict them from their house in Salford on the grounds they are not prepared to return “voluntarily” to Pakistan.
* Samina does not beg to stay here. Instead she demands her right to remain.
* She will not be blackmailed into leaving the country by threats of eviction from her home.
* She does not appeal for support because of her condition. Rather she asks for solidarity because she is fighting back against the racism of immigration controls.

How you can give solidarity
• Write a protest letter to the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke MP, Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building, 2 Marsham St, London SWIP 4DF
• Make sure you quote reference number A1233290. Send a copy to the campaign and Samina’s MP –Hazel Blears MP, House of Commons, London SW1
• Invite Samina to speak at meetings
• If you belong to a trade union ensure that your branch supports Samina and that your union does the same at regional and national level
• Both children are of school age. Ensure your local teachers union support the campaign.
• Help fund the campaign by sending donations to the address below. Make cheques out to “Samina Will Stay Campaign”
• Join Samina on the national demonstration against deportations in Bolton on October 1st. Assemble 12 noon at Lever Edge Lane School, Lever Edge Lane, Bolton BL3 3HP

Samina Will Stay Campaign. c/o Bury Law Centre , 8 Bank Street, Bury BL9 0DL

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Sukula Family Must Stay - No Deportations!
DEMONSTRATION
SATURDAY 1st OCTOBER 2005
ASSEMBLE: 12:00noon - LEVER EDGE LANE CP SCHOOL,
LEVER EDGE LANE, BOLTON. BL3 3HP
MARCH TO: VICTORIA SQUARE BOLTON

DEMONSTRATION SUPPORTED BY:
Sukula Family Must Stay Campaign, National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, Bolton Metro UNISON, Bolton National Union of Teachers, Schools Against Deportations, No One Is Illegal, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

Daniel Sukula lives in Bolton with his mum, three sisters and two brothers and is currently studying for his GCSEs. Yet a shadow hangs over Daniel’s life and that of his family. In July the Home Office wrote to them that they may be thrown out of their home and deported back to Congo at any moment. That would mean sending them back to the life-threatening dangers from which they escaped.
On New Year’s Eve, 2001 the family were forced to flee after Daniel’s mother, Ngiedi Lusukumu, was badly beaten by government militia and threatened with further violence. The militia was looking for her husband, who had already been forced to leave as a suspected opponent of the government. The beating inflicted on Ngiedi left her with permanent scars but after coming to Britain to seek sanctuary, the family were told that their asylum claim has been turned down.