Urgent Fax Message
Mr. Liam Byrne, Minister of State, Home Office,
Fax: 020 7035 4745

Dear Mr. Byrne,

Re: Forced removal of Christine Mulumba, Home office ref M1205926

I am asking you not to remove Christine Mulumba, a Congolese asylum seeker and Christian human rights campaigner, currently detained at Yarls Wood Detention Centre, who faces removal on Thursday 5th July on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET711 to Algeria at 21.35hrs.

Ms Mulumba applied for political asylum in the UK in August 2003. She was detained without warning by immigration officials whilst signing there on Friday 29th June 2007 and informed that her application for asylum had been rejected by the Home Office in January. She had had no official communication about her status during this time and had been signing on without incident during the 6 months since her supposed refusal of asylum.

Ms Mulumba fled the DR Congo in 2003 when Pastor Fernando Kutino, the minister of her church (Armee de Victoiree), was tried and imprisoned by a military tribunal on unproven charges for criticising "foreign influence" over the DRC's transitional government and she and other members of his Armee de Victoire church feared retribution. The Armee de Victoire church was involved in campaigning against human rights abuses in the DRC. Amnesty International have condemned the treatment of the people of the church:  http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620142006?open&of=ENG-COD

The DR Congo is still effectively at war and is an incredibly unsafe country for anyone to be deported to. Both the government and the FDLR rebels arbitrarily execute civilians, and women in particular are at extremely high risk of systematic rape and sexual violence, as documented by the UN Mission in DR Congo Monthly Human Rights Assessment:  http://www.monuc.org/News.aspx?newsID=14800

Deportees to the DR Congo are immediately handed over to the authorities on arrival, and are often imprisoned and tortured or starved to death. Most of those detained in Congolese prisons die within a year. Christine Mulumba believes this would be highly likely to happen to her were she to be returned to DR Congo.

Lynne Jones, MP for the constituency Ms Mulumba lives in, has been asked to call for a Ministerial Intervention on the grounds of the dangers of being returned to the DR Congo.

I would ask you to stay the removal, release Ms Mulumba from detention and reconsider her asylum claim.

Yours Sincerely,

Name:

Address:

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Urgent Fax Message
Girma Wake, Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Airlines
Fax: 251-11-661 1474

Dear Mr Wake,

Re: Forced removal on Ethiopian Airlines flight of Ms Christine Mulumba

I am writing to you to express concerns regarding the above named woman who is due to board your Ethiopian Airlines flight ET711 from Heathrow to Addis Ababa at 21.35 on this Thursday, 5th July 2007.

Ms Mulumba applied for political asylum in the UK in August 2003. She was detained without warning by immigration officials whilst signing there on Friday 29th June 2007 and informed that her application for asylum had been rejected by the Home Office in January. She had had no official communication about her status during this time and had been signing on without incident during the 6 months since her supposed refusal of asylum.

Ms Mulumba fled the DR Congo in 2003 when Pastor Fernando Kutino, the minister of her church (Armee de Victoiree), was tried and imprisoned by a military tribunal on unproven charges for criticising "foreign influence" over the DRC's transitional government and she and other members of his Armee de Victoire church feared retribution. The Armee de Victoire church was involved in campaigning against human rights abuses in the DRC. Amnesty International have condemned the treatment of the people of the church:  http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620142006?open&of=ENG-COD

The DR Congo is still effectively at war and is an incredibly unsafe country for anyone to be deported to. Both the government and the FDLR rebels arbitrarily execute civilians, and women in particular are at extremely high risk of systematic rape and sexual violence, as documented by the UN Mission in DR Congo Monthly Human Rights Assessment:  http://www.monuc.org/News.aspx?newsID=14800

Deportees to the DR Congo are immediately handed over to the authorities on arrival, and are often imprisoned and tortured or starved to death. Most of those detained in Congolese prisons die within a year. Christine Mulumba believes this would be highly likely to happen to her were she to be returned to DR Congo.

Lynne Jones, MP for the constituency Ms Mulumba lives in, has been asked to call for a Ministerial Intervention on the grounds of the dangers of being returned to the DR Congo.

Consequently, I urge Ethiopian Airlines to act in a responsible and ethical fashion by refusing to collude with the forced deportation of a vulnerable and traumatised woman to such a dangerous situation.

Yours Sincerely,

Name:

Address:

City: Postcode:

Country: Date: