Eucharia and Timeyi Jakpa granted asylum!

Eucharia Jakpa and her son Timeyi, faced deportation from Britain to Nigeria, where they were at risk of being tortured and/or killed, having fled in May 2004, after her husband and then six-year-old daughter, disappeared due to the on-going conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The Home Office initially rejected their application, later advising them to 'try other parts of Nigeria'. They were unable to appeal after their inept immigration service-appointed solicitor failed to represent them. Their MP Gerard Kaufmann refused to help them.




In May 2005, Eucharia Jakpa and Manchester Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) (better known by our newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!) set up the Defend Eucharia and Timeyi Campaign (DETC). The campaign involved many people who organised fundraising socials, attended demonstrations, collected petitions and went door-to-door in Gorton and Belle Vue, getting letters of protest to the Home Office and her MP, signed. All this while also supporting and showing solidarity to the Samina Altaf and Family, the Justina and Yonre Must Stay and the Defend Abdullah Gawaan and Family Campaigns, and others.




The Campaign (DETC) also ran stalls in the city centre, at Longsight and Gorton markets, Gorton Park and at Timeyi's school in Abbey Hey, Gorton and suceeded in sending over 900 individual letters of protest to the Home Office, and collected over 2200 signatures on petitions between May 2005 and September 2006. On 25 September 2006, 2250 DETC signatures were presented to Home Office minister Liam Byrne MP by campaign stalwart Phil Tarbuck at the Friends Meeting House, Manchester.


Under all this pressure, driven by Eucharia's determination to fight for her and her son's life and their right to stay in Britain, the Home Office have given in and granted them indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Without this campaign, Eucharia and Timeyi would have been deported long ago, facing the same fate as the 18,280 people deported last year (15,685 in 2005).


All along the campaign, Manchester FRFI insisted that the campaign should be political, emphasising the link between racism in Britain and British imperialist exploitation abroad such as in Nigeria. Many so-called anti-deportation organisations, boycotted the campaign because of FRFI's involvement and refused to publicise or support it, but all these efforts did not succeed in isolating the campaign, which due to its consistent activity raised its profile, thereby bringing attention to the treatment of asylum seekers in Britain, and to what British companies like Royal Dutch Shell oil company were doing in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.


The campaign also taught us how to campaign, and led to the birth of NWASDG in May 2006.


Manchester FRFI would like to say a big congratulations to Eucharia and Timeyi Jakpa for their wonderful and inspiring achievement. May their victory give inspiration to all the other asylum seekers campaigning against this racist Labour government, and may it also strenghten the hand of those campaigning in support of refugees on a principled non-charity, anti-racist standpoint, in defence of all immigrants, against immigration controls and the oppression of refugees in Britain.


Manchester Revolutionary Communist Group.