A man being held in Harmondsworth migration prison has been on hungerstrike for nearly 3 months. He has been deemed medically unfit to be detained but rather than release him the government are getting ready for his death.
Isa fled Nigeria after Boko Haram, a hardline Islamist group, threatened to kill him unless he joined them. The Home Office turned down his asylum request and locked him up in detention instead. In a desperate protest he has refused food for 86 days and is now almost dead. But he says he would rather die than go back:
"I was afraid, but now I am a skeleton and almost dead. There is so little of me left and I am not afraid. But they – the authorities – have not treated me as a human being."
The Home Office could choose to release him at any time. A High Court hearing to try and force them to do so failed recently. Rather than let him free the Home Office have prepared an "end of life plan" for him - an Orwellian-sounding euphemism.
A source at Harmondsworth says that staff there have been warned to expect a death soon, and that the decision by the Home Office to keep him locked up (which his lawyer points out is an effective death sentence) was taken at ministerial level. Presumably that means Theresa May was responsible.
This has ominous implications, not just for Isa, but for future hungerstrikers - that we have now reached the point where this murderous system would rather watch someone die gradually than contemplate seeing them live free.
If you want to do something about this, you need to act fast. Details of who to contact are below. We also need to prepare for the worst and be ready to hit the streets if the government doesn't back down; a powerful enough backlash could stop them doing the same to someone else next time.
coverage elsewhere:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/eiri-ohtani/isa-muazu-hunger-striker-and-us-monster
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/19/asylum-seeker-hunger-strike-stay-custody-death-nigeria-muaza
What you can do:
1. Call the office of your MP (this is the quickest and easiest way). Explain that this is a life and death issue and urge them to contact Theresa May to ask that this man be released from detention immediately. You can find out the contact details of your MP here:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
2. Write a letter or email to your MP asking them to intervene. Again, stress the importance of acting quickly if you can.
3. Contact your MP on twitter if they have an account
4. Raise awareness of what is happening and encourage others to act: forward this article, send a tweet, make a phone call.
"I was afraid, but now I am a skeleton and almost dead. There is so little of me left and I am not afraid. But they – the authorities – have not treated me as a human being."
The Home Office could choose to release him at any time. A High Court hearing to try and force them to do so failed recently. Rather than let him free the Home Office have prepared an "end of life plan" for him - an Orwellian-sounding euphemism.
A source at Harmondsworth says that staff there have been warned to expect a death soon, and that the decision by the Home Office to keep him locked up (which his lawyer points out is an effective death sentence) was taken at ministerial level. Presumably that means Theresa May was responsible.
This has ominous implications, not just for Isa, but for future hungerstrikers - that we have now reached the point where this murderous system would rather watch someone die gradually than contemplate seeing them live free.
If you want to do something about this, you need to act fast. Details of who to contact are below. We also need to prepare for the worst and be ready to hit the streets if the government doesn't back down; a powerful enough backlash could stop them doing the same to someone else next time.
coverage elsewhere:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/eiri-ohtani/isa-muazu-hunger-striker-and-us-monster http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/19/asylum-seeker-hunger-strike-stay-custody-death-nigeria-muaza What you can do:
1. Call the office of your MP (this is the quickest and easiest way). Explain that this is a life and death issue and urge them to contact Theresa May to ask that this man be released from detention immediately. You can find out the contact details of your MP here:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk 2. Write a letter or email to your MP asking them to intervene. Again, stress the importance of acting quickly if you can.
3. Contact your MP on twitter if they have an account
4. Raise awareness of what is happening and encourage others to act: forward this article, send a tweet, make a phone call.
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