Church St

Church St
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Sparked by this item on James Rosenthal and Nick Sagovsky being denied admittance to Yarl's Wood:
Without Right of Abode
Her Majesty's Prison, Haslar, Gosport, UK

Refugees from tyranny
plead for asylum.
Prison closes around them
while they wait.
Language is a useless tool:
no one understands.

Outside the wire
encircling winds worsen.
Gales rock the hillside,
seas advance. Around the world
top statemen double-talk,
confuse and threaten.

Christmas gains admission
without visa and tinsel.
The dispossessed share common ground.
Ancient chants and modern prayers
harmonise in a Babel-mix of tongues.

Hope lights the chapel for an hour,
passed hand-to-hand.

Edna Eglinton (from Doing December Differently)

Deportations

Is this the normal rate of deportations, or have the Home Office got end of year quotas to fill? In the past 2 days I've heard of 3 cases (independently) of persons about to face forcible deportation this week:

• Elizabeth Kiwunga Rushamba from Uganda who was raped and tortured by her government's officials because of her husband's political views.(deportation potentially tonight)
• Hamid Mohammed a Christian convert and his family from Islam who face grave danger from their families on their return. They were in Oldham - I hope their MP is active in this campaign - though as it is Phil Woolas (see the Ugandan link) I doubt it. Hamid's supporters have a meeting with William Hague tomorrow.
• Then there's Hussein Muradi from Afghanistan - another apostate from Islam, this time to humanism and again facing a cat and mouse game from the authorities.