Hunger strike asylum seekers close to death

mc | 09.03.2004 16:06 | Anti-racism | Globalisation | Repression

A protest has been announced by a Glasgow based Refugee Solidarity Campaign for Thursday 18 March 11.30 a.m. in Edinburgh.

Three Iranian Kurdish refugees, who have been refused asylum in Glasgow, Britain, are on hunger strike. The Three men, Faroq Haidari, Farnborz Gravindi and Mokhtar Haydary, have now been on hunger strike for about 3 weeks. They have apparently now stopped taking fluids, and are in a really bad way. Friday, the 5th of March, two of the men blacked out and were admitted to hospital.

The men are faced with a harsh choice, as once refused asylum they have no right to work, housing or benefits of any kind. They must choose whether to return to Iran and face arrest, imprisonment, torture - perhaps death, or stay and starve on the streets of Scotland.

Around 200 people attended a hastily organised solidarity demonstration the evening of Tuesday, March the 2nd, outside the city chambers (council offices). In a statement read out to protestors, the men say they would rather die than return. Supporters say they are close to death. Faroq Haidari, Farnboz Gravindi and Mokhtar Haidari are getting weaker by the hour. More information: [1,2]

Faroq

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Maybe helpful ?

09.03.2004 21:26

The case is very, very sad. However, an idea. Could it not be helpful, if friends and supporters would do a (small) demonstration in a BUSY street or place in Glasgow (many passers-by) and bring the hunger strikers on stretchers with them. Therefore normal people from Scotland can see, how genuine asylum seekers are dying because they do not get a fair asylum in Scotland, Britain and the EU too. And also deploy informing leaflets to passers-by.

Werner

Not an isolated case...

10.03.2004 13:04

I work with refugees here in Leicester, I help them find employment. We had an Iranian man who broke down in tears today, as he had been so stressed out that he had forgotten his own birthday!
The fact I work with refugees means I sit round the table of the multi-agency forum of the groups who deal with refugees and asylum seekers. At the last check, five known, that's known, not official, asylum seekers sleep rough and destitute here in Leicester. One is a pregnant woman, another is a man with severe mental health difficulties, he was taken into a drop in shelter, where he was so depressed that he started picking imaginary things off the floor. The most disgraceful one I have seen yet is a man sleeping rough was chatting to someone, when it came clear that his eyes were bleeding, not bloodshod, but bleeding, his mouth later started bleeding, he had leukemia. That stinks, to high heaven. He's been granted six months exceptional leave to remain, to see if he'll die or not. At least now he has some dignity being treated by doctors and nurses.
We all like to claim to be a democracy, we even claim to try and free the world from tyrranny, but when someone asks for our help, our freedom, maybe having fought for their own then fled. If we don't consider them worthy, which people with mental illnesses and other disabilities often aren't, then we perform an act worse than tyranny. It's just plain barbaric!
the hunger strikers have my complete support and solidarity.
Robin

Robin
mail e-mail: commie_oldskool@hotmail.com