| Brides Without Borders - National Campaign |
Brides Without Borders - National Campaign Katie, Jenifer, Heather and Suzie's foreign national partners have all been told to leave the UK by the Home Office "Wedding Belles" - Calling all women (and men) married to asylum seekers who have been told to leave the UK, or those asylum seekers being told they cannot get married by the Home Office ... we want to hear from you ! We are a group of women in the same situation Couples that are facing forcible separation due to one of them being a 'failed' asylum seeker and facing deportation have come together across he UK to start a national campaign. The campaign aims to raise the profile of all our cases, and highlight the cruel way in which the Home Office's immigration policy affects everyone including British Citizens. Many of us have been told by the Home office that our partners can go back to their country, and we may accompany them there even though the Foreign Office advise against travel to these countries... Many of us have also been advised that our partners can travel back to their countries and apply for a visa to return to the UK... Also, many of us have even been denied the right to marry our partners. New laws prevent asylum seekers marrying UK nationals. This amounts to a gross breach of our Human Right to a family life in all our cases. We have joined together to start a broad an inclusive campaign to overturn the Home Office's policy in this area. We recognise that there are many couples, straight, gay and lesbian, married, engaged, living together and dating. We all have one thing in common- that is we are being denied our rights to remain together in the UK. Our first step is a *'Public Petitions to the House of Commons', There is a meeting planned for Tuesday 20th September 2005, 8pm at Asylum Link on Overbury Street in Liverpool 8. We would urge anyone who can, or would like to attend to do so, as we want to build this campaign as far and as wide as possible. This will be our first organising meeting. Parliament reconvenes on 10th October 2005, and they will discuss changes to current asylum policy / law - namely leave to remain. Letters have already been sent to every MP and member of the House of Lords- we want to ensure that everyone knows about our situation. We want to organise a demonstration in London that day. Prior to this, we aim to hold a press conference, inviting the national and local media to publicise our campaign and the demo in London. This is just the beginning of what we have planned. If you would like to get involved, or join us in the campaign, you can do so by responding to this email. Thank you for your support. Inquiries/further information: Suzie, Katie, Jessica, Jenifer, Heather, can be contacted through their websites. Suzie and Nazwad *Public Petitions to the House of Commons |