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Destitute Asylum Seekers Call for Support Help scrap Section 55, the inhuman law making people homeless and destitute. Protest outside The
High Court, The Strand, 9am, Wed 27 Aug We are women and men from many countries – Burundi, Comoros, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kurdistan, Liberia, Palestine, Sudan, and Togo – camping outside Refugee Council. On 7 August we were evicted from our rooms because NASS said that we didn't apply for asylum in a "reasonable and practical time" but many of us applied within one or two days of arriving, yet were evicted. Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act is being used to deny people any means of survival if they don’t claim asylum as soon as they arrive in Britain. On 31 July judges ruled that applying Section 55 -- making people destitute and homeless -- is “inhumane and degrading treatment and violates the Human Rights Convention”. The Home Office is challenging the decision on 27 Aug. In the meantime, NASS says they will abide by the court’s ruling, but they don’t. If they did, why are we still homeless, hungry, thirsty and forced to camp outside Refugee Council’s office and other places? We
came to Refugee Council Friday 8 Aug to get housing. Some of us had been
sleeping out for days before that. We stayed together and slept
outside the Refugee Council. They told us it was illegal for them
to help us, even though Refugee Council’s duty is to represent and
care for refugees. We were left with no food, no mats or blankets,
no information about our cases, and no medical care. We got
cardboard to sleep on. Some Refugee Council staff with feelings
gave us water. Local people came to help. We contacted the
French Speaking African General Council, Single Parent Aid, and Detainee
Support & Help Unit for help, who have camped out with us. Six of
us fell seriously ill and three were rushed to hospital. Some people
were so depressed they could not eat, and we were all angry and
very anxious. At
the weekend, Refugee Council only gave us water, biscuits and pot
noodles, but no hot water! We
got sympathetic media attention, and only then Refugee Council said they
could do something for us. Some people were temporarily housed,
but not all of us. Local people urged Social Services to give
temporary housing to some of us who were sick. Local Mosques and
churches particularly helped with emergency floor space. We
suffered a lot of harassment sleeping on the pavement, first of all from
Refugee Council security staff. Refugee Council asked the local
council to remove the gifts given to us by well-wishers, including our
water cooler, plates, food, blankets and our personal things.
Organisations helping us had to demand a meeting with Refugee Council
management to stop their security staff harassing the people camping
out, and we organised people to be on guard while we slept. We had
no toilets or bathroom or even places to wash. Women are
especially fearful of sleeping out, and particularly suffer from lack of
privacy and bath facilities. Many of us have developed back and
chest problems from sleeping rough, as well as other medical problems.
No one knows how many people are getting very seriously ill, or are
dying from being forced to sleep rough, especially during winter and
when the weather is less kind. We are denied all we
need to rebuild our lives. We are fleeing persecution, war,
genocide, torture, ill treatment, and discrimination. It is an
outrage that anyone seeking a place of safety is treated this way.
It can take years before our asylum claims are processed. Are they
saying we should sleep rough and live destitute all this time?
ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL US? We are stamped like
animals, labelled, treated with mistrust so that no one believes
anything we say. You are not treated as a person, but as a number.
When we go to Refugee Council they don’t ask our names but say “Are
you Section 55?” We are treated as less than human. Some of us
have been refused specialist health care because we are “Section
55”. We are being made to live like prisoners. Refusing food and
shelter, and forcing people to suffer starvation is as bad as killing
people with bullets in a dictator's regime. To All Asylum Seekers & Refugees . .
.
We are calling on
you to come and join those of us who are already protesting. We
know you are also going through the same things, especially women with
children fighting against dispersal. The more we have protesting,
the more our protest can help all of us. . . . And Every Individual and Community
We ask for support
from all those who are for justice and against the way we are treated.
All must come and support the three people whose legal cases are
challenging Section 55 in the Appeal Court Wednesday 27 August. We
are asking voluntary organisations to help publicise this demonstration.
We also need people to sleep at the church, vehicles to help transport
people from the church to Refugee Council daily, plus food, blankets,
bedding, and money for travel passes and transport. People and groups
who support us and give us things can’t buy the right to be in charge
of our movement. Meet us every day at
the Refugee Council, 6-8pm in Bellefields
Rd, behind Refugee Council in Brixton, SW9. Under Section 55 anyone of
us can be made destitute. Join us in changing the law. Because we have been
persecuted and forced to leave our countries, and we've suffered again
here including fighting against homelessness and destitution, we should
automatically have our papers and the right to stay. WE ARE CALLING FOR: ·
Permanent housing including for women who feel under physical threat in
their accommodation ·
Health care and other support, particularly for women and children who
are often rape survivors, pregnant, breastfeeding mothers ·
Refugee Council and all so-called NGOs must stop administering the
inhuman and discriminatory dispersal and accommodation system ·
The end of all forced dispersal ·
The right to benefits and the NHS ·
The right to work so we are not impoverished ·
The government to recognise rape of women or men as persecution and
torture and therefore grounds for asylum. Destitute Asylum Seekers Email: destituteasylumseekers@hotmail.com FSA: 020
7401 7440 DSHU:
020 7703 5435 SPA: 020
7733 4461 LAW &
Women of Colour (WinWages): ALISC: nkexplo@yahoo.co.uk We are being helped daily by Legal Action for Women (LAW) which called the Action Lobby of Refugee Council led by Eritean women, and Women of Colour (WinWages) and the African Liberation Support Campaign. A full list of supporters and a copy of our petition is available.
Eritrean
Women's Group supports the Asylum Seekers |