Despite many human rights organisations expressing concern that there has been a major crackdown on dissent in the run up to the Games in Beijing, the Home Office detained 25 year old Qin Wang and her son Jian Qi Lin on Friday 1st August and told her she was going to be forcibly removed on a Russian Aeroflot plane from Heathrow to China on Thursday 7th August, only one day before the opening ceremony

In January 2008 Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2008, published on 31 January 2008, stated that: “Despite China’s official assurances that hosting the 2008 Olympic Games will help to strengthen the development of human rights in the country, the Chinese government continues to deny or restrict its citizens’ fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of religion. The government’s extensive police and state security apparatus continues to impose multiple layers of controls on civil society activists, critics, and protesters. Those layers include professional and administrative measures, limitations on foreign travel and domestic movement, monitoring (covert or overt) of internet and phone communications, abduction and confinement incommunicado, and unofficial house arrests. A variety of vaguely defined crimes including ‘inciting subversion,’ ‘leaking state secrets,’ and ‘disrupting social order’ provide the government with wide legal remit to stifle critics.”

In April 2008, Amnesty International reported that in China there is “a human rights situation that is getting worse, not better, in the run-up to the Olympics. In Tibet and the surrounding areas, the police and military crackdown on demonstrators has led to serious human rights violations in recent days. In and around Beijing, the Chinese authorities have silenced and imprisoned peaceful human rights activists in the pre-Olympics 'clean up'.” Read the full report here:  http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10917

Qin Wang is one of those many Chinese people facing repression by Chinese authorities. Qin arrived in the UK in October 2003 after managing to escape one of the many political prisons in China.

In China, Qin had been working in a factory which was suddenly closed without any of the workers getting paid their legitimate redundancy payments. When Qin and other workers tried to agitate about this she was arrested by the authorities and jailed for three months. Whilst in jail Qin was tortured and eventually her family managed to successfully petition for her to be taken to hospital. When in hospital Qin managed to escape and came to the UK.

Now Qin, a victim of torture, has been detained without notice by the British authorities and is in Dungavel detention centre. Terrified of being returned she has not eaten for three days and her baby is unwell.

This family urgently need your help.

URGENT ACTION
1. Fax Home Secretary Jacqui Smith by faxing: The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office fax: 020-7035-4745 or from outside the UK +44 207 035 4745 using the model letter 'QinWangMinister.doc' from our website, which you can copy/amend/write your own. Ask her to urgently reconsider Qin’s removal directions. When faxing Jacqui Smith remember to include Qin's Home Office reference number W1066923

2. Phone, fax or email the Aeroflot UK office in London 70 Piccadilly, London W1J 8HP using the model letter 'QinWangAirline.doc' from our website. Тel: 0207 355 2233; Fax. 0207 493 1852; e-mail:  infres@aeroflot.co.uk. Office hours are from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm Mon to Fri. Or fax their Customer Service office at Heathrow, Tel:: 020 8897 0579, Fax: 020 8562 7175

3. If you live in Scotland please Fax or phone or email Fional Hyslop MSP Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning Telephone: 0131 348 5921 Email  Fiona.Hyslop.msp@scottish.parliament.uk Fax: 0131 348 5708 asking her to intervene on behalf of Qin and her local community in Glasgow.

Information on how to send faxes by email can be found on our website.