Release Delshad Zorab and grant him asylum in the UK
John O | 20.02.2009 15:12 | Migration | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Birmingham | Sheffield
On the morning of Friday February 13th Delshad Namiq Zorab was taken from his home in Doncaster to a police station and then to Campsfield IRC. Many of you will have met Delshad: he has been an active campaigner for the right to asylum. Now, locked in Campsfield IRC, he fears that he will be forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan where he has every reason to believe that his life would be in real danger. This is despite the fact that his appeal for asylum is still pending: Delshad should not - even under this Government's asylum laws - be detained or deported.
Delshad on the *SYMAAG march for "Dignity Not Detention" October 2007, now incar
Information about Delshad
Delshad Namiq Zorab is an active member of the UK Committee of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) and a member of The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees. The WCPI is a banned organisation in Iraq and Kurdistan. Its members both at home and abroad are persecuted by the Kurdish and Iraqi security forces. Delshad's life is in danger if he is deported back to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Delshad was born in 1/7/1956 in the village of Sewsenan, Sulaimaniyah, into a politically active family. Both he and his family have been the regular victims of persecution for their political beliefs and activities; his brother Kamal was killed by Saddam Hussein's Baath regime for being a member of the Iraqi Communist Party, 70 people from Delshad's village, mainly family members and friends were killed in a chemical attack, similar to Halabja, by the Iraqi army on 22/3/1988.
Delshad has been involved in many demonstrations and meetings calling for the end to violence and war in Kurdistan and for equal rights of women and children against religious and nationalist organisations. As a result of this campaigning Delshad has been the target of persecution by the Kurdish nationalist parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and by some Islamic groups. He was arrested and tortured on a several occasions by the Kurdish nationalist parties and by the Baathist Iraqi regime.
Delshad has lived in the UK since 2003. He has demonstrated with the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) outside Lindholme IRC in 2007 against the detention of those who had committed no crime. He spoke passionately on demonstrations in London and Newcastle for asylum seekers' right to work and against deportations to Kurdistan. Just before he was detained he was helping to establish a scheme in Doncaster to help exchange asylum vouchers for cash. All his life Delshad has supported those people persecuted by dictatorship, big business and bigotry. Now he needs our support. When I spoke to Delshad today in the detention centre he said "I want you to tell everyone 'thank you' for supporting me".
What You Can Do
To help release Delshad from detention and to persuade the Home Secretary to grant him asylum, SYMAAG and the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) ask you to:
Sign the petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/release-delshad-namiq-zorab.html
Write, email or fax Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. A model letter is at the above web address. Remember to quote Delshad's Home Office Reference number: H1050750 in all correspondence.
Please send copies of your emails to SYMAAG
dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk and to IFIR at jasm_rg@yahoo.co.uk
Contact Delshad's MP Rosie Winterton MP: 01302 326 297 or http://www.rosiewinterton.co.uk/contact.aspx to ask how she is trying to secure the release of her constituent, Delshad Zorab
Read more about the danger facing those deported to Kurdistan from the website of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq: http://www.csdiraq.com/
We know that our actions can stop deportations and save lives
Inquiries/further information:
Stuart Crosthwaite, Secretary
*South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk
End of Bulletin:
Source for this Message:
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
Delshad Namiq Zorab is an active member of the UK Committee of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) and a member of The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees. The WCPI is a banned organisation in Iraq and Kurdistan. Its members both at home and abroad are persecuted by the Kurdish and Iraqi security forces. Delshad's life is in danger if he is deported back to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Delshad was born in 1/7/1956 in the village of Sewsenan, Sulaimaniyah, into a politically active family. Both he and his family have been the regular victims of persecution for their political beliefs and activities; his brother Kamal was killed by Saddam Hussein's Baath regime for being a member of the Iraqi Communist Party, 70 people from Delshad's village, mainly family members and friends were killed in a chemical attack, similar to Halabja, by the Iraqi army on 22/3/1988.
Delshad has been involved in many demonstrations and meetings calling for the end to violence and war in Kurdistan and for equal rights of women and children against religious and nationalist organisations. As a result of this campaigning Delshad has been the target of persecution by the Kurdish nationalist parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and by some Islamic groups. He was arrested and tortured on a several occasions by the Kurdish nationalist parties and by the Baathist Iraqi regime.
Delshad has lived in the UK since 2003. He has demonstrated with the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) outside Lindholme IRC in 2007 against the detention of those who had committed no crime. He spoke passionately on demonstrations in London and Newcastle for asylum seekers' right to work and against deportations to Kurdistan. Just before he was detained he was helping to establish a scheme in Doncaster to help exchange asylum vouchers for cash. All his life Delshad has supported those people persecuted by dictatorship, big business and bigotry. Now he needs our support. When I spoke to Delshad today in the detention centre he said "I want you to tell everyone 'thank you' for supporting me".
What You Can Do
To help release Delshad from detention and to persuade the Home Secretary to grant him asylum, SYMAAG and the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) ask you to:
Sign the petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/release-delshad-namiq-zorab.html Write, email or fax Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. A model letter is at the above web address. Remember to quote Delshad's Home Office Reference number: H1050750 in all correspondence.
Please send copies of your emails to SYMAAG
dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk and to IFIR at jasm_rg@yahoo.co.uk Contact Delshad's MP Rosie Winterton MP: 01302 326 297 or
http://www.rosiewinterton.co.uk/contact.aspx to ask how she is trying to secure the release of her constituent, Delshad Zorab Read more about the danger facing those deported to Kurdistan from the website of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq:
http://www.csdiraq.com/ We know that our actions can stop deportations and save lives
Inquiries/further information:
Stuart Crosthwaite, Secretary
*South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk End of Bulletin:
Source for this Message:
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
John O
e-mail:
JohnO@ncadc.org.uk
Homepage:
http://www.ncadc.org.uk
Additions
Campaigning Works! - Delshad has been released
27.02.2009 16:02
Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker, Delshad Namiq Zorab was released from Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre last night. He called to thank everyone for their support and is now back home in Doncaster . He has not received an apology from the Home Office for his wrongful imprisonment. The Home Office would only say that he had been detained because he “fitted the right criteria”, as if he were a statistic, not a person.
Delshad’s long battle for the right to remain in the UK goes on, but he is now free to continue his political work and enjoy his relative freedom.
To find out more about resistance to the deportations of Iraqi Kurds see the website of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq at www.csdiraq.com
Delshad’s long battle for the right to remain in the UK goes on, but he is now free to continue his political work and enjoy his relative freedom.
To find out more about resistance to the deportations of Iraqi Kurds see the website of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq at www.csdiraq.com
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group
e-mail:
dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk