Peter Gitau Gichura / Disabled activist under threat of deportation again (Posted 12/09/08)

Peter Gichura is a committed disability rights activist who has lived in Croydon, UK, since 2001. Despite the difficulties Peter has faced as an asylum seeker, he has spent his time positively, successfully completing NVQ level 4 in accounting and doing voluntary work and activities with Payday menÕs network, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities), Leonard Cheshire Disability and his local church. Peter is an active and well-respected member of his local community, with many friends and networks in the UK.

Peter is from Kenya and was instrumental in establishing a disabled personsÕ organisation, advocating for the rights of disabled street hawkers. He fled in 2001 to escape anti-Kikuyu persecution against disability activists. The situation in Kenya remains very volatile.

Whilst in the UK, Peter has made good use of his campaigning skills, by being involved in campaigns to improve access to public services for disabled people, including London buses.

Peter has made a significant contribution to the disabled peopleÕs movement in the UK. As an asylum seeker, he was detained in Harmondsworth in 2006, without accessible washing and toilet facilities, not given the correct medication, and subjected to painful body searches. With the support of WinVisible and Payday, Peter challenged the Home Office and Kalyx, the company that runs Harmondsworth detention centre, using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

In May, the Court of Appeal made a precedent ruling on his DDA case -- that all disabled people in custody before December 2006 do have the protection of anti-discrimination legislation. But the authoritiesÕ liability over how he was treated is still to be decided. The case is likely to be heard in 2009. This is an important case that affects all disabled people in custody in the UK.

During the plane journey to the UK in 2001 Peter was manhandled, causing his spinal injury to worsen. He has gone from using crutches to using a wheelchair, and relies on medical treatment without which he would die. In 2006, he applied for asylum on that basis: "As someone with spinal injury I am vulnerable to chronic kidney infection and need sanitary living conditions to survive Ð but there is no running water where I am from in Nyahururu, Kenya. I cannot afford medical treatment Ð and there is no free healthcare." Expert evidence confirmed this but was ignored, and PeterÕs claim was turned down.

Removal now would put Mr GichuraÕs health and life at risk, while denying him the opportunity to provide evidence in the DDA case.

Above all, Peter has built his life in the UK, has contributed to society through his active commitment to voluntary and community groups. Peter has the skills and experience that will help him to build a career, and will thus be able to support himself financially if he is given leave to remain in the UK.

Here is the lilnk to my online petition: http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/20996.html

Peter Gitau Gichura released from detention (Posted 31/08/07)

We are delighted to announce that Peter Gichura is out of detention. He went home today Thursday 31st August, he is exhausted and in terrible pain. He didn't have a proper bed, and was in a largely inaccessible environment. 

This is only a temporary reprieve -- Peter is still under threat of deportation. He is waiting to hear the result of a Judicial Review on whether he is allowed to stay in the UK for his precedent-setting civil case about how people with disabilities are treated in detention. His justified asylum claims -- for political persecution as a disability rights activist, and to access medical care, were both refused by the Home Office. We will be working with Peter and others to uphold the right to medical care and accessible living conditions, including Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights ˆ the right to life.
 
We would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support. Meanwhile ˆ if you have not done so already ˆ can you alert any press contacts, MPs and others about Peter‚s situation and let us know if you would like to be more involved in the campaign to win his right to stay.  

Keep in touch.

Giorgio Riva,
for the Campaign

Peter Gitau Gichura back in the wars

Disabled activist under threat of deportation again

Peter Gichura, a father, a wheelchair user and disability activist from Kenya was 'Captured' and detained last Thursday and told that he would be deported tomorrow Wednesday 30th August. He is on hunger strike in Harmondsworth IRC.

In 2001, he claimed asylum from persecution for his political disability rights activity after fleeing Kenya in fear for his life because of repeated violence and intimidation, including death threats from the authorities. When interviewed by the Home Office shortly after arrival, he was in pain, exhausted and lacking legal representation, resulting in minor discrepancies which the Home Office seized on to dismiss his application and subsequent appeals.

His recent detention comes just days after he took part in the 'Claim the Buses' wheelchair users‚ action organised by 'Transport for All', and was interviewed on ITV's London Tonight (ITN, 21 August) unable to board a 24 bus. He was one of 250 wheelchair users taking part on the day. Mr. Gichura is widely known and respected, and was released after huge public support and media interest when he was detained previously in February (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4742948.stm).

Around 10 per cent of the world’s population, or 650 million people, live with a disability. They are the world’s largest minority.

“The existing human rights system was meant to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities, but the existing standards and mechanism have in fact failed to provide adequate protection to the specific cases of persons with disabilities." Louise Arbour UNHRC

Mr. Gichura launched a legal case under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Human Rights Act (HRA) about the appalling conditions in Harmondsworth detention centre. He could not use the toilet or bath facilities, was denied essential medication and was searched in a painful and threatening way, all of which resulted in a deterioration of his health. The case is still pending, this is when the authorities chose to put him back in Harmondsworth, in the same conditions, with just two working days to appeal against the refusal of the fresh claim. Mr. Gichura's case under the DDA and HRA is likely to set an important precedent establishing what responsibility the authorities have towards people with disabilities who are also asylum seekers, and all who are asylum seekers, which will have crucial implications for the entitlement of all of us to care and humane treatment.

The public may not be aware that the Home Office and courts have dismissed disability and health grounds for asylum even when someone's life will be shortened if sent back. The threshold set for exceptions to this is so high that lawyers say no one can satisfy that test. People with disabilities and ill-health are treated as entirely expendable. These attacks on vulnerable disabled people are 'part & parcel' of the government's 'inhumane and unjust' asylum policies. 

How you can help keep the Peter in the UK
Peter with the help of *Payday have set up a campaign to keep Peter in the UK. Fax/write to Liam Byrne, Minister for Immigration, using the model letter 'Attached', which you can copy/amend/write your own.

Fax: 020 7035 4745 from outside the UK + 44 20 7035 4745

Or write to:
Liam Byrne, Minister for Immigration
Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF

Please take time to notify the campaign of any letters/faxes sent:
Peter Must Stay
PO Box 287
London
NW6 5QU
Tel 020 7209 4751
Fax 020 7209 4761
Mobile 07803 789699
payday@paydaynet.org

Give Peter a call of Solidarity
020 8283 3850 X 1008

*Payday, a network of men working with the Global Women's Strike