Liam Byrne
Minister of State for Immigration at the Home Office
Home Office, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate
London SW1H 9AT

Dear Mr Byrne

Re. Amdani Juma – HO ref. A1179608

Mr Amdani Juma is a refugee HIV prevention and community worker in Nottingham. He was detained by the immigration authorities on Friday 30th May 2008 and is currently awaiting removal to Burundi on June 4th.

I am shocked and distressed by the news of his detention.

Amdani is a popular, active and enormously well-respected refugee community worker in Nottingham, with a particular interest in HIV prevention work.

Amdani is a Burundian national. In 2003, he was granted 3 years Humanitarian Protection but his later application for Indefinite Leave to Remain was turned down. I understand that a further application for discretion under the ‘case resolution programme’ has also just been refused. Given his track record in Nottingham, Amdani should be regarded as a prime candidate for a positive discretionary decision. He is an exemplary role model for integration and community cohesion.

Amdani has a singular track record as a voluntary and paid refugee support worker. He is employed in the Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum’s ‘floating support’ team and as a HIV support worker for the Terrence Higgins Trust. However, his contribution goes wider than Nottingham. For example, he has also served on the National Refugee Integration Forum.

In a letter to you in January 2008, his local MP, Alan Simpson, stated that ‘I am not aware of any refugee who has made the contribution to the city and its communities comparable to that made by Mr Juma. He is an outstanding asset. Removing him from the UK would leave Nottingham (and beyond) much the poorer. There is no one, particularly within the AIDS / HIV field who could replace the work he does.’

Amdani is a torture survivor and a pro-democracy activist, who escaped death on more than one occasion. He has no immediate family left in Burundi. Amdani’s cousin, brother and sister have all been given Leave to Remain in the UK or the Netherlands. Human Rights organisations and the UN have reported ongoing human rights abuses in Burundi, including harassment and torture.

I urge you to reconsider Amdani’s case and to exercise your discretion to grant him Leave to Remain.

Yours sincerely,

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