Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

URGENT PLEASE ACT NOW TO STOP DEPORTATION

BWRAP | 14.04.2006 09:51 | Migration | Repression

Apologies for any cross-posting

Please send urgent letters of support calling for Ms Chalimpa's removal later today to be stopped and for her to be released from detention and allowed access to the expert psychiatric and other support she urgently needs - see details below.

Since the age of six Ms Chalimpa suffered many years of repeated rape and other violence, first by members of the Lord’s Revolutionary Army (LRA), who abducted her and forced her to become a child soldier, and then by a so-called “sponsor” to whom she was sold after escaping from the LRA. As a result of her horrific experiences Ms Chalimpa suffers from severe depression and other mental health problems. Since being in the UK she has been sectioned on several occasions but despite this she was detained in Yarl’s Wood in June 2005. In July 2006 she joined other Ugandan women on hunger strike to protest against their imminent deportations and the terrible conditions in detention.

But despite her brave protest, including speaking out publicly about her situation, Ms Chalimpa has remained in detention. Her asylum claim was “fast tracked”, a procedure the Home Office claims is only reserved for so-called “straightforward” cases. As is the experience of the majority of the women subjected to the fast track in Yarl’s Wood, Ms Chalimpa’s lawyer withdrew representation at appeal because she was deemed to have a less than 50% chance of success. She had to try to represent herself at the hearing despite being in a confused and distressed state. She explained that the last time she was in Uganda she was arrested, imprisoned and beaten by the police for kissing another woman in a nightclub. But her account was dismissed and she was told it was safe for her to be returned to Uganda. Yet she has no family, friends or support networks there and will be homeless and destitute if returned. We know of other women returned to Uganda who were detained at the airport until a bribe was paid to release them – Ms Chalimpa has no-one who might help in this way.

Subsequent attempts to get Ms Chalimpa’s asylum claim reopened, so she could have the benefit of legal representation and psychiatric and other expert evidence, failed. Ms Chalimpa’s mental health has deteriorated after nine months of detention and the constant fear of what will happen to her next. She has tried to take her life twice in Yarl’s Wood and was only returned there from a secure psychiatric unit two weeks ago where she has been hospitalised twice since being detained. She is currently heavily medicated and on suicide watch, yet the Home Office claim she is “fit to travel” and intend to proceed with her removal tonight. Because she has been unable to find a lawyer, no independent psychiatric evidence has been commissioned about the likely impact of removal on Ms Chalimpa’s mental health and well-being and there are no services in Uganda which she could access for the intensive support she needs. To proceed with her removal without this is a terrible injustice and we calling for her flight to be stopped.



WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please Fax or email letters to the authorities:

Press the Home Office to cancel the deportation & detention of Ms Chalimpa

Minister of State, Home Office, Tony McNulty,  mcnultyt@parliament.uk fax: 020 7219 2417

Send copies of your letters to Alistair Burt  burta@parliament.uk, who has agreed to make representations on Ms Chalimpa’s behalf, and Black Women’s Rape Action Project  bwrap@dircon.co.uk

Phone Ethiopian airlines and urge them not to carry this traumatised and suicidal woman Tel: 020 8745 4234

Circulate this appeal as widely as you can - to your friends and the organisations/churches you know.




BWRAP

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech