On Saturday Lenny Banda's claim to remain in the U.K was denied. She was been given five day to appeal, but has yet to find a solicitor to take her case. Her previous solicitor dropped the case four days before her appeal hearing. Please sign the petition, as well as print out the below letter and post it to the Home Office.
Rt. Hon Jacqui Smith, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings, 2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132
Emails:
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Lenny Banda, a Zimbabwean national, _____________________________________________________________
Born in Harare, Lenny was married to a man who worked for Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Office and the Zanu PF. When he discovered Lenny's support for the M.D.C as he subjected her to domestic violence and threatened to inform his colleagues wi0thin the government of her M.D.C support. The violence she was subjected to at the hands of her husband have left various scars on her body. In 2003 she acquired a Malawian passport to flee the country and arrived in the UK on a student visa. She first applied for asylum on entry to the U.K, but on hearing of husband’s death she withdrew her asylum claim only to discover that his friends and family blamed her for his death. In March 2009 she claimed asylum and was refused on the grounds that she was a Malawian national despite overwhelming proof to the contrary – birth certificate, ID cards, school reports. Lenny had attempted to renounce her Malawian passport, but as she has lost the physical copy of it the Malawian embassy refuses to support her in this manner. Due to this her solicitor dropped her case three working days before her appeal, and she was unable to find a replacement in time for her to have representation at the appeal.
Following a court case last year, the UK Government is not currently enforcing deportations back to Zimbabwe due to the instability, terror and suffering in that country, yet continue to deport Zimbabweans to Malawi where they will be either immediately deported to Zimbabwe or imprisoned for ‘passport abuses’ and then sent back to Zimbabwe to face possible retribution from the Mugabe regime. The removal of Zimbabweans on passports obtained only to escape persecution is a thinly disguised attempt to ignore new case law on removals of Zimbabweans.
Suspending Lenny’s deportation so that the question of her national identity can be fully and legitimately established (through a Judicial Review) is surely the only course of action to take.
Lenny is an honest, hardworking churchgoer who has been a pivotal part of her local community for the past 5 years. Given that President Mugabe has stated that any Zimbabwean who has claimed asylum is in opposition to his regime, Lenny would be at risk of imprisonment and persecution if she was to be returned to Zimbabwe. To send her back to Zimbabwe (via Malawi), a country riven with violence, poverty and disease, would be a dreadful and potentially life-threatening mistake.
Secretary of State for the Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings, 2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 8760 3132
Emails:
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Lenny Banda, a Zimbabwean national, _____________________________________________________________
Born in Harare, Lenny was married to a man who worked for Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Office and the Zanu PF. When he discovered Lenny's support for the M.D.C as he subjected her to domestic violence and threatened to inform his colleagues wi0thin the government of her M.D.C support. The violence she was subjected to at the hands of her husband have left various scars on her body. In 2003 she acquired a Malawian passport to flee the country and arrived in the UK on a student visa. She first applied for asylum on entry to the U.K, but on hearing of husband’s death she withdrew her asylum claim only to discover that his friends and family blamed her for his death. In March 2009 she claimed asylum and was refused on the grounds that she was a Malawian national despite overwhelming proof to the contrary – birth certificate, ID cards, school reports. Lenny had attempted to renounce her Malawian passport, but as she has lost the physical copy of it the Malawian embassy refuses to support her in this manner. Due to this her solicitor dropped her case three working days before her appeal, and she was unable to find a replacement in time for her to have representation at the appeal.
Following a court case last year, the UK Government is not currently enforcing deportations back to Zimbabwe due to the instability, terror and suffering in that country, yet continue to deport Zimbabweans to Malawi where they will be either immediately deported to Zimbabwe or imprisoned for ‘passport abuses’ and then sent back to Zimbabwe to face possible retribution from the Mugabe regime. The removal of Zimbabweans on passports obtained only to escape persecution is a thinly disguised attempt to ignore new case law on removals of Zimbabweans.
Suspending Lenny’s deportation so that the question of her national identity can be fully and legitimately established (through a Judicial Review) is surely the only course of action to take.
Lenny is an honest, hardworking churchgoer who has been a pivotal part of her local community for the past 5 years. Given that President Mugabe has stated that any Zimbabwean who has claimed asylum is in opposition to his regime, Lenny would be at risk of imprisonment and persecution if she was to be returned to Zimbabwe. To send her back to Zimbabwe (via Malawi), a country riven with violence, poverty and disease, would be a dreadful and potentially life-threatening mistake.
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