"In this Country we Expect the Foreign Disabled to Stand on their Own Two Feet"

                      Lata Shah                  Arati Bhavsar                   Devesha Shah


Stop the Deportation of Lata and Devesha Shah

Fighting to come

Mukesh Patel was an Indian citizen with a severely damaged spine. He applied to come to the UK in 1981. His entire family, parents, sisters and brother, lived here. However he was refused admission, In the course of the case a Home Office spokesperson made the bizarre observation about disabled people having to stand on their own feet. This may have been a Freudian slip but was nonetheless an accurate political statement of the way disabled people are perceived , particularly under the immigration laws. Eventually Mukesh was allowed entry after publicity and protest.

Fighting to stay - the campaign of Lata and Devesha Shah

Coming to this country requires a struggle if you are black - and so does staying here. This applies not only to disabled people but also to those who want to stay here to assist them. There is nothing in the immigration rules which allows someone to remain here to assist a family member with disabilities. This is why Lata Shah and her daughter Devesha are now under threat of deportation to India.

Lata Shah is the aunt of Arati Bhavsar. Arati is aged 22 and has been disabled since birth as a result of medical negligence. She was born in the UK and is a British citizen. However as she is black so she might as well as been born on Mars given the lack of rights attached to this citizenship. Lata Shah and her own daughter, Devesha, came to the UK on holiday. Whilst here Lata has consistently assisted Arati. The family would like Lata to remain and continue this supportive role. The local social services, Bury, agree this is in Arati's interests. However the Home Office are threatening to expel Lata and Devesha. A campaign has been set up to prevent this expulsion.

Solidarity not pity

The Home Office expect immigration cases to be argued on so-called "compassionate" grounds - which is ironic given the lack of compassion shown by the Home Office. They expect people to beg, beseech and plead to remain here. Immigration control is about humiliating, demeaning and degrading all those subject to it. It is about forcing people to pathologise themselves - to show they are weak, sick, vulnerable and deserving of compassion, of pity, of mercy. It is about dehumanising the individual and portraying her, him or them as a victim.

The Lata and Devesha Defence Campaign is utterly opposed to this victimolgy. It has been set up not on the basis of pity but on that of solidarity with Arati, Lata and Devesha. Mobility and freedom of access does not just mean better equipment and facilities for disabled people and those who want to assist them. It means that everyone should have the right to move across states and state borders. Achieving this right requires a political struggle.

Immigration controls make you sick

The campaign for Lata and Devesha is just the latest example of how immigration controls contain within themselves the basest prejudices towards both black and disabled people. A recent article in the Guardian (8 November 2000) was headed "Act of cruelty". It described the mistreatment by the British state of disabled asylum-seekers following the monstrous 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act - an Act designed to prevent immigration and to refuse asylum. It gave the following examples: Disabled and tortured asylum-seekers are dispersed to areas where there is no specialist medical help: the misnamed National Asylum Support Service (which is neither supportive nor offers a service) has no expertise in disability issues but yet is given the task of housing disabled refugees: GPs are refusing to place disabled asylum-seekers on their lists (allegedly because asylum-seekers cannot pay for interpreters)

However these examples are just the tip of an iceberg that has been afloat for many years. For instance: Since 1982 free hospital treatment has been dependent on residency status: Since 1996 entitlement to all disability and sickness benefits have been based on immigration status: Throughout all this period disabled people people wishing to come to the UK have been frequently denied entry on the grounds they may have "recourse to public funds"

Political unity between the struggles of the disabled and the struggles against controls

Sometimes it seems that there are two worlds and they exist a world apart. On the one hand there are campaigns against immigration controls. On the other hand there is the self-organisation of disabled people. Both of these worlds are often incredibly vibrant and active. But they hardly ever meet. It is though they exist in parallel universes, each oblivious to the existence of the other. This is politically disastrous, especially when it comes to the issue of racism and immigration controls. What is required is political unity. Otherwise it leaves exposed all those in the situation of Lata and Devesha Shah.

You can help the campaign if you:

Download the model letter: Lata and Devesha

Invite a speaker from the campaign to one of your meetings

Sign and distribute the campaign's petition sheets

Come to the regular campaign meetings. Delegate someone from your organisation to attend.

For further info, leaflets etc, write to:

Lata and Devesha Defence Campaign

400 Cheetham Hill Rd

Manchester M8 9LE.

Tele: 0161 740 8206.

Email tony.openshaw@pop3.poptel.org.uk