Local anti-deportation campaigners have shrugged off a refusal by Immigration Minister Des Browne MP to lift the threat of deportation hanging over Cambridge postal worker Boris Lidovski. According to a letter sent by the Immigration Minister to Boris's constituency MP Ian Gibson last week, the only alternative to the forced removal of Boris from the UK to Russia would be for him to "voluntarily depart". Speaking on behalf of the Cambridge-based 'Boris Lidovski Must Stay Campaign', Nick Savage described the letter as "a setback for the campaign, but certainly not a fatal one." Boris arrived in the UK in April of 1997. He applied for asylum three days later. Over six years later, in June of last year, his asylum claim was refused. [Background Info]
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Cambridge Trades Union Council and the local branch of the Communication Workers Union, of which Boris is a member, responded by setting up the 'Boris Lidovski Must Stay Campaign'. The campaign is now backed by 24 trade union organisations, four MPs, two Euro-MPs, Cambridge City Council, and Cambridge Labour Party. Over 2,000 signatures have been collected in Cambridge for a petition calling for Boris to be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds. The focus of the campaign is that Boris is now settled in the UK, having lived and worked here legally for over seven years, and no longer has any ties with Russia. "The really worrying thing about Des Browne's letter is that it fails to address the compassionate arguments in favour of Boris being allowed to remain. It just tells us what we know already - that Boris's asylum claim has been rejected. The letter is about Boris the asylum-seeker, not Boris the human being," said Nick Savage. Boris's supporters are concerned that the message has not got through to the Home Office that the case for Boris to stay in this country is not based on the letter of the law but on humanitarian and compassionate considerations. "We're not lawyers. We're not getting bogged down in fine points of law," explained Nick Savage, "we're a campaign to stop someone settled in the UK from being taken into detention one day and dumped in Russia the next." Faced with the danger of Boris's deportation in the immediate future - although no Removal Directions for Boris have yet been set by the Home Office - his supporters are stepping up their campaigning. Cambridge Trades Union Council has written to Des Browne urging him to reconsider his position and to take on board the humanitarian reasons why Boris should be allowed to remain. "We're appalled at the idea that someone who's been living and working here for over seven years could suddenly be put on a plane and bundled off to Russia. Boris isn't a spy or a criminal. He's just an ordinary working man," said Trades Council press officer Tony Carter. "Boris is hard-working and has shown a commitment and loyalty to the local community in Cambridge," added Mr. Carter. "Boris will be sorely missed if the campaign is not successful. We hope that the Home Office will see sense and change its mind." Boris's branch of the Communication Workers Union is drawing up an emergency motion to be tabled at the union's national conference next month. "We already have the backing of the union's General Secretary and well over a dozen union branches for the campaign. I'm confident the union will back Boris to the hilt," said branch representative Paul Turnbull. The campaign is also calling for letters to be sent to Immigration Minister Des Browne at the Home Office in Queen Anne's Gate in London, urging him to use his discretion to allow Boris to remain in the UK. For further information, contact: Nick Savage - nick@nicksavage.freeserve.co.uk
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