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Brides Without Borders - Keep Couples Together

NCADC News Service | 07.10.2005 21:47

Lobby of Parliament - Monday 10th October

British men and women affected by cruel Asylum policies, denied their basic Human Right to a family life, who face being forcibly separated from their foreign national partners in the name of "maintaining effective immigration controls" will link together - join us on this day of Parliament reconvening and the Adjournment Debate "Asylum seekers and leave to remain in the UK" · campaign for the Home Office to allow us to stay together in the UK.

12.00 noon - Assemble In Parliament Square
We will be in our wedding dresses/attire, with cake and confetti!
 

* Join us!  Ask your MP to join us too!


* Stop Forced Separations!



* Don't Deport our Partners!



* Bring Back the Right to Marry Who We Wish!



* Defend our Human Rights!


4.30pm - Press Conference, Committee Room 11, House Of Commons
With MPs and invited speakers.  All welcome - please ask your MP to join us.

Right now, senior staff nurse Amanda Kadir from Liverpool does not know if she will ever see her husband Zardasht again - originally from Kurdistan, where there is no facility to apply for a visa to return as Amanda's spouse, he traveled to Jordan to make the application and was told by the Home Office that he would have to travel to Iraq and wait there while the application is processed.  Amanda explained "When my husband got to Jordon, he was detained for three hours by the authorities and his passport was taken away from him.  They didn't believe him when he told them why he had come, and they threw him out of the airport"

Campaign Supporters (join the growing list!) - Louise Ellman MP, Bob Wareing MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, George Galloway MP, UNISON branches, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, Womens Refugee Association, Indymedia, Newswire, and many more.

Coach leaving Hardman Street, Liverpool 7am on Monday - if you need accommodation contact us on:  07725487481

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Who are we?
We are a rapidly growing national campaign of couples that face being forcibly separated from our partners in the name of immigration controls - we are over 35 couples with more contacting us every day. We are open to all couples - straight, same sex, married, engaged, living together or dating. In all our cases, our partners are people who have claimed asylum in the UK and have failed.

Follow Home Office instructions and get stranded in dangerous countries in perilous situations!
Many of us have been told by the Home Office that we can either accompany our partners to their countries and settle there, even though the Foreign Office advise against travel to these countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran.  Or, our partners should return to their countries and apply for a Visa to return to the UK, even though there may be no facility in that country for issuing Visas and our partners may be exposed again to the persecution they fled, and would have to undertake dangerous journeys.  Some of our partners followed Home Office instructions but were left stranded in dangerous situations with no access to even apply for a visa.  Others were deported and refused a visa to return to the UK.

Children torn away from their parents
Parents have been forcibly separated from their British children and partners.  British-born children have been deported to countries they have never set foot in.

Denied the right to marry!
Since February 2005 both British citizens and their non-EU partners must obtain permission from the Home Secretary to marry?  And it's rarely granted to people who have failed asylum claims.  One law for some and another law for others amounts to no rule of law.

Living with the threat of forcible indefinite separation and danger
Our partners are complying with conditions set by the Home Office to "sign" periodically at Immigration Enforcement Units and police stations - we live daily with the uncertainty of if and when our partners will be snatched by Immigration Officers, detained and deported.  Meanwhile, many of our partners are denied the right to work and pay tax - we are supporting them from our salaries but then penalized in our applications to be together because the Home Office say we can't show enough savings to prove we can support our partners, which we are in fact already doing now anyway. The Home Office has questioned none of our relationships.   Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 describes the right to a family life - yet the Home Office is denying countless couples this right.  They show no care for our Human Rights here in the UK or in the dangerous countries they suggest we should follow are partners to.

Please support us! This week's Big Issue has an article "Trouble and Strife" in which some of our cases are highlighted, extracts below.

Ashley's Husband is from Burundi
"It wasn't until I'd known him for about two months that I found out his brother had been killed by rebel soldiers in Burundi," she says. "Adam hid but was later captured and tortured. The immigration officials have never asked to see his scars, but they say he is not a target."

Now, Ashley must decide whether she wants to risk letting her husband go back alone to a country he fled because he feared being tortured and killed, or follow him to a place the Foreign Office advises British citizens against entering. "We don't know how long it will take him to get his entry visa," she says. "It could be several months or even longer."

The Home Office has told Ashley it will use public money to pay for her to follow Adam back to Burundi. "We would not want to split a family up," says a Home Office spokeswoman. However, the British Embassy in Burundi says it is not able to issue entry clearance visas from its office in Bujumburu. "Applicants must go to Kampala in Uganda," explains an embassy official.

The Foreign And Commonwealth Office (FCO) states Burundi is unsafe for British nationals, saying they should only visit with a UN Mission and even then safety cannot be guaranteed. The FCO has refused to provide this for Ashley, saying it is her choice if she wants to go to the country.

Anna's husband separated from her and their two children for over a year
Anna (not her real name) lost her husband a year ago to this process after he was returned to Nigeria. She has two children and in order for her husband to return on an entry clearance visa, must work in order to prove she can support him if he is allowed to return to the UK. "I am earning less than I would get on benefits, but I have to pay rent and childcare myself to get him here," she explains.

Suzie and Naz
Email  keepsuzieandnaztogether@yahoo.co.uk
Web -  http://ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed%20newszines/newszine61/nawzad.htm
Article:  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article309215.ece

Heather and Shah
Email  heatherbullen@yahoo.co.uk
Web -  http://www.ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed/%20newszines/newszine60/shah.htm

Jessica and Hossein
Email  Justice4hossein@aol.com
Web www.justice4hossein.com

Katie and Sherzad
Email:  otl10@hotmail.com
Web  http://www.ncadc.org.uk/Newszine62/sherzad.htm

Jennifer and Ali
Email  alitostay@hotmail.com
Web www.ali2stay.com

Ashley and her husband
Email:  Barbara3@ntlworld.co.uk
www.justice4hossein.com

Contact us
For information regarding the campaign, or if you are a couple facing separation and would like to join us...
Phone - 07725487481
Email -  keepsuzieandnaztogether@yahoo.co.uk
Website: www.justice4hossein.com

End of Bulletin:

NCADC News Service

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