All seven Hunger Strikers (and more than 100 other asylum seekers in Plymouth who have been waiting in excess of seven and a half months for either an initial interview, a decision following interview, an appeal date or a decision following an appeal hearing) are now busy with solicitors preparing individual legal actions against the Home Office.

Caselaw: R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Deniz Mersin (2000) INLR 511. Justice Elias held that: A delay in excess of seven and a half months was unreasonable and, therefore, unlawful when the task to be performed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department was purely administrative.

No-one really knows how many others nationwide have been waiting for more than seven and a half months - but estimated to be in the thousands. Lets hope that many others and their solicitors consider the above caselaw as the basis for thousands of legal actions against the Home Office!

OUR HUNGER STRIKE MISERY
PLYMOUTH EVENING HERALD 11 June

Top-level talks were today being held in Plymouth in a bid to end the misery of seven Kurdish asylum seekers starving themselves to death in the city.

The men, who have not taken food since Thursday, are protesting at the length of time it has taken the Home Office to decide on their asylum applications.

The situation has got so bad they are now threatening to go on thirst strike unless they get written confirmation by 6pm tonight that their files are actively being processed.

The threat to start refusing liquids was put off for 24 hours last night following a telephone call from the Home Office, which said staff were actively searching for their files amid a 35,000 backlog of asylum applications.

Today Plymouth Sutton MP Linda Gilroy said a senior case worker at the Home Office had now been found.

Some of the seven refugees from the Iraqi-controlled section of Kurdistan have been waiting up to three years for a decision on their futures.

Today, a meeting was due to be held between Plymouth City Council, the police, health authority, Refugees First, and the Youth Enquiry Service, to discuss the situation.

The men are currently outside the Plymouth headquarters of the National Immigration Office at Ballard House, in West Hoe.

They say a lack of food has led to them feeling physically weak but they remain determined to carry it through to the death, if necessary.

One had to be taken to hospital on Sunday because of concerns of how the hunger strike was affecting his heart condition but has since returned.

Father-of-three Maged K, 31, is one of the seven on hunger strike based in a van donated by the Youth Enquiry Service which is stationed outside Ballard House.

The former goldsmith, who has been awaiting a decision by the Home Office on his status since he came to England 21 months ago, said: "I am still insistent on my decision until I get a reply or death.

"Some of my friends have received letters from the Home Office to leave this country and they have been living here for three years.

"I am afraid that the same might happen to me. I am very frustrated and sometimes I am angry."

Six days of the hunger strike has left him weak, dizzy and shivering as he awaits his fate.

Interpreter and supporter Darius Bahiraey said despite the physical decline, morale was extremely high.

"They decided from day one that they would go as far as death if they don't get a response," he said.

"They want the Home Office to invite them for an interview to look at their application form.

"The fact that they have gone to this length is because they have tried every channel possible unsuccessfully."

He added that all the people on hunger strike had suffered physical and mental torture under Saddam Hussein's regime and had felt united in Britain's fight against the Iraqi ruler.

But he said they could not understand how they could be treated so badly in a country that had waged war on Saddam.

Tony Staunton, Plymouth spokesman for public sector union Unison, which has a policy of supporting asylum seekers, said the group of seven had to live on £37 in vouchers per week, and they could not work.

He said: "This is not a political protest, it is a statement of despair. They have given up hope and are saying they would rather die than live in conditions they are forced to live in Britain.

Some of the Kurds on hunger strike lost close relatives in the bombings under Saddam Hussein's regime. Between 1988 and 1990 more than 182,000 Kurdish civilians were killed by Iraqi bombing or taken prisoner.

Jon McKenzie, regional co-ordinator for the National Civil Rights Movement said that given the current agenda in relation to dealing with Saddam Hussein's regime, he thought it 'shameful' that the Government could treat victims of that regime in such an 'inhumane' way.

Labour's representative on the Anti- Racist Task Force in Plymouth, Councillor Chris Pattison, said: "I have been in contact with Linda Gilroy who is making representations on behalf of these people to the Home Office.

"Clearly there is an issue that needs to be resolved here but there is a backlog nationally."

Mrs Gilroy said a senior case worker in the immigration service told her last night that the papers relating to the hunger-strikers had been found. She added they would be looked at 'in the next few days'.

She said: "It is an appalling situation, but it is an appalling situation nationally. I would say their actions are misguided. We have recruited more staff and invested more in computer systems but it will not wipe out the problems overnight."

A Home Office spokesman said it could not comments.

A public meeting is to be held at The Ballard Centre on Thursday at 7.30pm.

ASYLUM BATTLE VOW TO FIGHT ON
PLYMOUTH EVENING HERALD - 13 June 2002

Asylum-seekers in Plymouth today vowed to fight on after seven Kurdish hunger-strkers ended their protest.

They are planning to mount a legal challenge against the Home Office, which they claim has breached asylum law by taking more than seven and a half months to process their applications for asylum.

It comes as the 'Plymouth Seven' - who claimed to have waited two years for the Home Office to approve or reject their applications - agreed to end their 151-hour hunger strike outside Ballard House at 5pm yesterday.

It followed intensive negotiations with immigration officials, who have agreed to give the seven full interviews in London later this month.

A spokesman for the hunger-strikers, Darius Bahiraey, told the Herald: "We are all extremely happy because justice has been done, but this is not the end.

"Many more asylum-seekers in Plymouth are in this situation."

The seven Kurdish asylum-seekers were taken by ambulance to Derriford Hospital as soon as they had called off the strike, which had lasted almost a week.

The breakthrough came after an immigration official had a meeting with the hunger strikers yesterday afternoon.

It is understood the seven are unlikely to be refused asylum because of the danger they would face if deported back to Kurdistan.

Their plight could be just the tip of the iceberg, according to supporters.

As revealed in the Herald yesterday, there are around 350 asylum-seekers in Plymouth and they have warned of more unrest - possibly on an 'ugly' scale - if the Government does not sort out its backlog of 35,000 asylum applications.

Mr Bahiraey told the Herald: "We know many people in this city who have been here for two years and not had their cases looked into.

"It is not just justice for these seven: it is justice for all."

Plymouth Sutton MP Linda Gilroy said she would be taking up the protestors' issues with the Home Office, and a public meeting about asylum-seekers is due to take place tonight at 7.30pm tonight in the Lower Guildhall.

Tony Staunton, chairman of the Plymouth branch of the union Unison, said he was "hugely relieved. It is a disgrace and it should never happen again."