"They are now on a train heading home, they have not been granted leave to remain, just released pending outcome of new legal action, but it's a victory all the same! We may have to contact you all again if fresh representation fails, but in the meantime. Thank you everyone for your incredible support. We will keep you informed and please keep showing your support for this family until they are given leave to remain."

Friends of Elsa and Betty

The New Statesman & The Yorkshire Evening post are running stories

Bethlehem's testimony: Yarl's Wood, "Once we got inside, it felt as if we were in prison for doing an awful crime". Eleven year old Bethlehem Abate was arrested with her mother Elsa Imbaye during a dawn raid last Thursday. Several officers burst into their Leeds home to take them Yarl's Woods where they waited to be deported to Ethiopia on Wednesday 1st October. The terrified pair have just been told they are to be released. They have been in the UK since 2004 after they fled Bethlehem's abusive father and the civil war that gripped her home country, Eritrea. Bethlemhem wrote this letter from Yarl's Wood last Friday. Full article: New Statesman, Published 30 September 2008
 http://www.newstatesman.com/africa/2008/09/pack-ethiopia-mum-office

Your opinion needed: Yorkshire post are canvassing their readers as to whether Bethlehem should be deported
 http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Betty39s-heartrending-letter-from-detention.4540473.jp

Friends of Elsa and Bethlehem
 http://www.ncadc.org.uk/Newszin98/Elsa.html

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Luc Antoine Sambou, didn't fly on on Wednesday 17th September
"Luc is still in detention, pending the outcome of a court decision on his new asylum application. We have been told there's no point in doing anything about bail until that decision has been received and the Home Office accept or reject it, as it might result in Luc being released without the need for a bail application."

Jamie, The UNITY Centre
Please help Luc Antoine Sambou
 http://www.ncadc.org.uk/Newszin98/Luc.html

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Investigation into claims of abuse on asylum-seekers
Claims by hundreds of asylum-seekers that they have been beaten or abused by British guards during their detention and removal from this country are to be independently investigated for the first time, The Independent has learnt. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has appointed Nuala O'Loan, the former Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, to conduct an investigation into mistreatment allegations first reported in this paper last year.
By Robert Verkaik, Law editor, The Independent, Tuesday, 30 September 2008
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/investigation-into-claims-of-abuse-on-asylumseekers-946106.html

End of Bulletin:

Source for this Message:
Friends of Elsa & Bethlehem
UNITY
The Independent