In Memory of Manuel Bravo born 1970 - Died September 15th 2005

In Memory of Manuel Bravo born 1970 - Died September 15th 2005

Another victim of the UK's "unjust and inhumane" immigration rules

Manuel Bravo, a national of Angola living in Leeds was 'snatched' by immigration officials with his son Antonio on the morning of Wednesday 14th September. In the early hours of Thursday the 15th September Manuel was found hanging in a stairwell at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre. Manuel and Antonio had been living in Armley, Leeds for the last three years after leaving war-torn Angola.

Our understanding is that Manuel Bravo's parents had been killed and his sister raped in Angola. Manuel, his wife Lydia and their two sons, Antonio and Mellyu fled Angola, arriving in the UK in 2001 where they settled in Leeds.

Earlier this year Lydia returned to Angola with Mellyu to care for relatives there. A few months later Manuel received a letter from the International Red Cross telling him that his wife had been arrested on arriving in Angola and that both his wife and son have disappeared.

Reportedly, Manuel had an asylum hearing but had not heard anything back from the Home Office. The Home Office are said to have claimed that they sent two letters of refusal to Manuel, and Manuel is said to have maintained he had not received any letter.

Earlier this week Manuel told friends he had received a call from Immigration asking of his whereabouts and he had gone to seek advice from a solicitor. He said he had paid the solicitor £300 and was told to return in a couple of days.

Immigration arrested Manuel and 13-year-old Antonio on Wednesday morning and took them to Yarl's Wood removal Centre with "removal directions" set for Thursday.

Reverend Alistair Kaye, of Christ Church, Armley, in Leeds, said he had spoken to Manuel on Wednesday evening from inside Yarl's Wood; "He was absolutely terrified of going back". Rev Kaye said on Thursday morning that he had a phone call from the Chaplain at Yarl's Wood saying that Manuel had taken his own life.

We have been told that Manuel had said to his son to be brave and do well at school. He left a suicide note mentioning that an injustice had been done, and hung himself in a stairwell. It was said that the suicide had been captured on CCTV in Yarl's Wood.

We have been informed that Antonio has been taken out of Yarl's Wood by Bedfordshire Social Services and that representatives of the church in Leeds are trying to get agreement that Antonio be taken back to Leeds where he was attending school.

Rev Alistair Kaye, who visited Antonio yesterday said. "We went to the mortuary with him to see his dad. I spent some time with him. We are hoping to get him back up to Leeds. In three or four days time he is going to come and stay with a family from the church for a few weeks, and spend some time with friends. They have said it could be up to a week down here so we are going to send some of the congregation down here to Bedford to be with him. He is staying in Hitching. He is out of Yarl's Wood. He is free to go. They cannot deport him. It would be illegal to deport a minor. They have no grounds to deport a minor."

John Battle MP for Leeds West where Manuel lived has demanded an inquiry into the case.

An investigation into the death is to be launched by the Prisons and Probation Service Ombudsman Stephen Shaw.

Yarl's Wood Must be closed
Yarl's Wood Removal Centre has a troubled history, destroyed by fire shortly after opening the centre was closed for a period, since reopening there has been a constant series of incidents. Over the last three months there have been mass hunger strikes by females from Zimbabwe and Uganda. The hunger strike by the Zimbabwean's ended in victory when the Home Office was forced by the High Court to 'Stay' removals to Zimbabwe.

Ugandan women detainees have been on hunger strike at Yarl's Wood for weeks on end, protesting against the conditions in detention and against their threatened deportations to Uganda.

Many of these women say they have been detained, tortured, raped and now HIV+ as a result, facing further persecution and certain death due to lack of access to anti-retrovirals if deported to Uganda. Some have been abandoned by legal representatives, and left standing in asylum appeal hearings on their own.

Home Office claims that they will be safe in Uganda are simply not credible in the light of numerous reports from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch ( http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/uganda0505) and their own operation guidance notes www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/en/home/laws_policy/country_information). They refuse to accept accounts of the ill-treatment they have documented themselves - Home Office guidance of July 2005 describes unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, beating of suspects to force confessions, and incommunicado detention by the government's security forces - yet 95% of Ugandan asylum claims were refused last year, despite the documented human rights abuses taking place there.