Cheryl Laws back home
Our Lawyers managed to get a Bail hearing at Birmingham AIT on Monday 16th November, the Judge kept Cheryl in detention. Our barrister went straight to the High Court and lodged an appeal, the appeal was upheld and the Judge ordered a fresh bail hearing, which was held on Friday 20th November, Justice Collins presiding. He ripped apart the Home Office and in the end granted Cheryl bail. The only condition was that Cheryl sign at an immigration office twice a week and a dusk to dawn curfew.

This was not what the Home Office wanted.

I would like to thank all who have supported Cheryl.

Many thanks again.

Daniel and Cheryl.

 http://tinyurl.com/CherylLaws
 http://www.help-stop-the-deportation-of-cheryl-laws.com/



Detention of children at immigration 'prisons' attacked by MPs
Too many children being held at detention centres for too long.In a report released on Sunday, the home affairs select committee said statistics suggested that about 1,000 children a year were held in secure immigration centres while they and their families awaited removal from the UK, but it was "troubling" that no one was able to give an exact number held or an overview of their welfare. The committee is calling for reform of the asylum process to speed it up. Children spend an average of more than a fortnight in detention centres, with longer stays of up to 61 days not uncommon. Some children are released and re-detained. MPs said detention of a child was difficult to justify and should only ever be used as a last resort. It costs £130 a day to detain someone, and holding a family of four for between four and eight weeks can cost more than £20,000.
Full article: Tracy McVeigh, The Observer, Sunday 29 November 2009
 http://tinyurl.com/yaqn6tt

Download the full report: The Detention of Children in the Immigration System
 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhaff/73/73.pdf



Put your MP to work EDM 214 and EDM 139

Early Day Motions are very good ways of raising issues in parliament, which may not get debated in normal sittings of parliament.

You can contact your MP for free, through: WriteToThem.Com
 http://www.writetothem.com/

EDM 139: Detention of children
That this House notes with concern that around 2,000 children are detained each year in immigration detention centres, some for periods of several months; further notes the opinion of Save the Children and the Children's Commissioner that this is unjustified and damaging; further notes that families with children are among the least likely to abscond; further notes that some EU and Commonwealth countries have successfully introduced solutions other than secure detention for families who have exhausted their asylum claims; and urgently calls on the Government to end the practice of holding children in immigration detention centres.

List of MPs who have signed EDM
 http://tinyurl.com/EDM139



EDM 214: Violence against women and the no recourse to public funds rule
That this House commends the work of Amnesty International, the No Recourse to Public Funds campaign and the End Violence Against Women campaign; acknowledges that the current no recourse to public funds rule has a devastating effect on hundreds of women who are trapped in a cycle of abuse, unable to access basic levels of protection and support due to their immigration status; believes that the Government has a duty to protect the human rights of all women entering the UK regardless of immigration status, as stated in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); further acknowledges the recent Home Office pilot project, but recognises the need for a permanent solution for all women; and therefore calls on the Government to exempt women fleeing domestic violence from the no recourse to public funds rule, to grant women's refuges the funds they need to offer protection from violence to all women suffering abuse, and to launch an integrated strategy to counter violence against women so as to prevent contradictory policies undermining women's rights.

List of MPs who have signed EDM 124
 http://tinyurl.com/EDM214


End of Bulletin:

Source for this Message:
Cheryl Laws Campaign
The Observer
House of Commons