Urgent - Please help Safinah







Safinah came to Glasgow because she was abandoned on a train from London on the day she arrived in the UK . She stayed on the train until it terminated at Glasgow Central station. Safinah left her home in Uganda after a group of five soldiers attacked and raped her in her home in October 2006. Her husband was involved in the Lord’s Resistance Army and was away from home.



Safinah is pregnant and her baby is due on 24th March. In January 2005 her 9 year old daughter disappeared after an attack on her husband’s uncle during birthday celebrations.



She is currently in Yarl’s Wood detention centre.



Under the ‘Fast Track’ system, Safinah’s case was rejected. The Tribunal believed that because she did not seek medical attention for ten days after being attacked that she is not in any danger if she returns to Uganda . The Tribunal also believed that because she left her home in central Uganda and managed to hide for a week before leaving Uganda with the help of a friend of her husband that she would be safe hiding in the south of the country.



Safinah has been given a removal notice for TOMORROW – Tuesday 9th January 2007.



She is due to be put on Kenyan Airways flight KQ101 at 19.00 hours (7pm) to Nairobi and then from Nairobi to Entebbe on Kenyan Airways flight KQ410.



Because of her husband’s involvement in the LRAQ Safinah is in real danger if returned to Uganda .



“[When] A failed asylum seeker, with a deportation certificate, arrives at Entebbe airport [they are] handed over to one of the security organisations. If suspected of political dissident activities, the person is taken to a safehouse for questioning. Rape, for young women, is inevitable. Children over the age of three are taken from their mother and put in an orphanage. Detention can last weeks, or months; a number of people have "disappeared" from custody.” (Caroline Moorhead , The Guardian Wednesday August 23, 2006)



Urgent action

Safinah is 26 weeks pregnant, she has not had any malarial treatment for her unborn baby. Safinah is also suffering from pains in her hip and down one side of her body dating from when she was attacked. She has been diagnosed with depression and has been prescribed pain-killers for the pain in her side.



She is not fit to travel and we ask for urgent faxes to be sent to:



Kenyan Airways offices at Heathrow airport and in London (addresses below) asking for the airline not to allow her on board the plane.

LONDON
Cirrus House, Bedfont Road ,
Heathrow Airport
Staines, Mddx.TW19 7NL
Tel: +44 01784 888222
Fax: +44 01784 888311
Airport Office:
Room 2543, Me zzanine Floor,
Terminal 4 Heathrow Airport
Mddx TW6 3YD
Tel: +44 020 8759 7366
Fax: +44 020 8745 5027

And to urgently fax Liam Byrne, Minister of Immigration's office asking for Safinah’s case to be reconsidered and the removal notice lifted. Please make sure to quote Safinah’s Home Office number; N1131733.



Fax: 0207 035 4745 (+44 207 035 4745 from outside the UK)



Many thanks