Please contact Alan Johnson

Update: story in the Northern Echo today, worth a read.

Elizabeth Kiwunga Rushamba, whose case I mentioned yesterday, is now in Yarlswood detention centre, and scheduled for deportation back to Uganda tomorrow. I recieved the following update last night:

"We have heard that Elizabeth is in the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre and they are looking at deporting her on Thursday. If you haven't e-mailed the govt please do so - this really is our last chance. There have been riots in Uganda recently where members of the opposing parties have been rounded up and imprisoned. Elizabeth is likely to be arrested immediatley on her return, especially as a failed ayslum seeker. Please write, telephone and do something."

Elizabeth is connected with the opposition parties in Uganda, where she has spoken out about human rights abuses, and there is medical evidence that she was badly maltreated whilst in Uganda before. She has two small children (3 years and 6 months), who were separated from her when the British border officials took her from her home yesterday morning. This has happened before, and her treatment by the authorities in the UK has been inhumane. Her local MP, MEP, and CofE bishops have all called for her to be allowed to stay here. The authorities have ignored all of these pleas.

Here is one official report on human rights in Uganda
U.S.A: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Uganda 2006
The government's human rights record remained poor: violence and discrimination against women; female genital mutilation (FGM); violence and abuse of children, particularly sexual abuse; trafficking in persons; unlawful killings by security forces; disappearances; security forces use of torture and abuse of suspects; vigilante justice; harsh prison conditions; official impunity; arbitrary arrest; incommunicado and lengthy pretrial detention; restrictions on the right to a fair trial and on freedoms of speech, the press, and association; limited freedom of religion; abuse of internally displaced persons (IDPs); restrictions on opposition parties; electoral violence and irregularities; government corruption; violence and discrimination against persons with disabilities; forced labor, including by children; and child labor.

to repeat the contact details from yesterdays post:

Please contact Alan Johnson (Home Secretary) and Alan Milburn (local MP for Darlington) to complain about this treatment of a peaceful woman and her family and ask they release her immediately - and review her case favourably - this really is last chance saloon, because if she is returned to Uganda she is likely to be imprisoned and the children placed in an orphanage.

So I ask you again to take a few minutes out of your day to make a stand on her behalf
Alan Milburn - alanmilburnmp@googlemail.com or call 01325 380366
Alan Johnson - public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and/or johnsona@parliament.uk and/or windlet@parliament.uk or 020 7035 484

Please.