A man being held in Harmondsworth migration prison has been on hungerstrike for nearly 3 months. He has been deemed medically unfit to be detained but rather than release him the government are getting ready for his death.
Isa fled Nigeria after Boko Haram, a hardline Islamist group, threatened to kill him unless he joined them. The Home Office turned down his asylum request and locked him up in detention instead. In a desperate protest he has refused food for 86 days and is now almost dead. But he says he would rather die than go back:
"I was afraid, but now I am a skeleton and almost dead. There is so little of me left and I am not afraid. But they – the authorities – have not treated me as a human being."
The Home Office could choose to release him at any time. A High Court hearing to try and force them to do so failed recently. Rather than let him free the Home Office have prepared an "end of life plan" for him - an Orwellian-sounding euphemism.
A source at Harmondsworth says that staff there have been warned to expect a death soon, and that the decision by the Home Office to keep him locked up (which his lawyer points out is an effective death sentence) was taken at ministerial level. Presumably that means Theresa May was responsible.
This has ominous implications, not just for Isa, but for future hungerstrikers - that we have now reached the point where this murderous system would rather watch someone die gradually than contemplate seeing them live free.
If you want to do something about this, you need to act fast. Details of who to contact are below. We also need to prepare for the worst and be ready to hit the streets if the government doesn't back down; a powerful enough backlash could stop them doing the same to someone else next time.
coverage elsewhere:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/eiri-ohtani/isa-muazu-hunger-striker-and-us-monster
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/19/asylum-seeker-hunger-strike-stay-custody-death-nigeria-muaza
What you can do:
1. Call the office of your MP (this is the quickest and easiest way). Explain that this is a life and death issue and urge them to contact Theresa May to ask that this man be released from detention immediately. You can find out the contact details of your MP here:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
2. Write a letter or email to your MP asking them to intervene. Again, stress the importance of acting quickly if you can.
3. Contact your MP on twitter if they have an account
4. Raise awareness of what is happening and encourage others to act: forward this article, send a tweet, make a phone call.
"I was afraid, but now I am a skeleton and almost dead. There is so little of me left and I am not afraid. But they – the authorities – have not treated me as a human being."
The Home Office could choose to release him at any time. A High Court hearing to try and force them to do so failed recently. Rather than let him free the Home Office have prepared an "end of life plan" for him - an Orwellian-sounding euphemism.
A source at Harmondsworth says that staff there have been warned to expect a death soon, and that the decision by the Home Office to keep him locked up (which his lawyer points out is an effective death sentence) was taken at ministerial level. Presumably that means Theresa May was responsible.
This has ominous implications, not just for Isa, but for future hungerstrikers - that we have now reached the point where this murderous system would rather watch someone die gradually than contemplate seeing them live free.
If you want to do something about this, you need to act fast. Details of who to contact are below. We also need to prepare for the worst and be ready to hit the streets if the government doesn't back down; a powerful enough backlash could stop them doing the same to someone else next time.
coverage elsewhere:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/eiri-ohtani/isa-muazu-hunger-striker-and-us-monster http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/19/asylum-seeker-hunger-strike-stay-custody-death-nigeria-muaza What you can do:
1. Call the office of your MP (this is the quickest and easiest way). Explain that this is a life and death issue and urge them to contact Theresa May to ask that this man be released from detention immediately. You can find out the contact details of your MP here:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk 2. Write a letter or email to your MP asking them to intervene. Again, stress the importance of acting quickly if you can.
3. Contact your MP on twitter if they have an account
4. Raise awareness of what is happening and encourage others to act: forward this article, send a tweet, make a phone call.
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
A likely story
21.11.2013 20:26
Reality Check
shut up troll
21.11.2013 22:15
You don't know what you're talking about. The government's own travel advice says:
"Boko Haram regularly mounts attacks in northern Nigeria. The majority of attacks occur in the north east, particularly in Borno and Yobe states where Boko Haram’s operating base is. There has, however, been a significant number of attacks in other Nigerian states and further attacks could occur anywhere."
Apart from which, the fact that this guy is desperate enough to have starved himself for 3 months - probably causing permanent damage to himself already - speaks volumes.
anon
Join the vigil outside the detention centre
22.11.2013 17:34
Isa has been on hunger strike for almost three months. He is now dangerously ill. Last week a judge refused to release him from detention because the Home Office had issued him removal directions even though Isa is too sick to move from his mattress on the floor in the detention centre’s medical centre.
The Home Office are refusing to release Isa because they believe he is deliberately starving himself for trivial reasons. Earlier this week they drew up an “End-of Life” plan with Isa including helping him to write his will. The Home Office have hardened their stance towards hunger strikers in detention since releasing four men on medical grounds earlier this year.
Isa has been clear. He started his protest because the food he was being given in the detention centre exacerbated several related medical conditions he suffers from. Since then he has widened his protest to include the way he has been treated within the detention centre since beginning his protest.
He’s now demanding to be released so he can receive medical treatment in hospital without being treated as a criminal.
Members of Unity who have been supporting Isa since before he started his hunger strike travelled down to Harmondsworth on Wednesday night and have been holding vigils outside the detention centre every-day in support of Isa with friends and supporters from London.
At the hearing last week the judge agreed to hear Isa’s appeal early due to the fact that Isa was so unwell. It will now be on Monday.
Please come and join the people on the vigil outside Harmondsworth to call for Isa’s release –
Sunday 24th November 2pm - 8pm
Monday 25th November 8.30am – 5pm.
Please don’t worry if you cannot make the whole time. Come along to spend an hour standing up for Isa with us. Please bring candles sleeping bags and banners.
Accommodation overnight on Sunday night is available at the Grow-Heathrow site nearby.
For more details contact the Unity Centre, 30 Ibrox Street, Glasgow G51 1AQ Tel: 0141 427 7992 or the vigil phone 07448617766
UNITY
more complicated than that
23.11.2013 15:30
To the person who argued why not remain in some safer part of Nigeria, no, that possibility would not make invalid a claim to asylum.
But how did Isa get to Britain? A claim for asylum can properly only be made in the FIRST country one has escaped to from where endangered that might be willing to grant asylum. Once having reached a safe haven country and received asylum there one cannot necessarily go into another, ask for asylum, and expect to be granted it. Now there might be good reasons for trying to get to some country other than the one in which one was safe from the original threat. The second move is usually for some other reason and the second country can refuse to grant the asylum request.
So please don't leave out this important detail. You are asking for our support and have an obligation to provide that information regardless of the possibility that YOU might have some non-standard definition of "asylum".
MDN