"Missing — my Wife, my Daughter, my Liberty"

Hey Hey Beverley Hughes
How Many Families Can You Lose?
Lock Them Up And Make Them Poor
Then Go On And Lose Some More
Cover Up And Try To Hide It
But You Know That We Don't Buy It

Aziz Ahmed, a political refugee from East Africa, has been in detention for over a year, in four different centres. He had been arrested and persecuted as a member of the opposition party in Pemba, a small island under the dictatorship of Zanzibar. But here he was refused asylum (wrongly, according to the UNHCR) because he travelled on a false Somali passport, the only way he and his family could get to the UK.

Now Aziz is in grave danger of being sent back. Worse than that, his wife, Husna, and four-year-old daughter, Asya, went missing from Immigration HQ in Croydon, over a year ago. This is one of the worst cases we have come across in nine years of detention and imprisonment of asylum seekers.

On 13 June 2001, the family went to Lunar House, Croydon, where Aziz claimed asylum for all three. They were all fingerprinted and photographed. Aziz was separated from his wife and child, and taken for his immigration interview. He has not seen or heard from them since. Have they been quietly deported? abducted? Who knows? Aziz has been locked up since then and unable to search for them.

Aziz was arrested at Lunar House on 13 June, handcuffed and taken to a cell in a local police station, where he spent 24 hours without food. He was then given police bail, but this meant he was simply turned out alone in London, a city totally strange to him. He spent six nights sleeping in a railway station. Aziz finally found someone who spoke his language, and was directed to the National Asylum Support System (NASS), which sent him back to Croydon to find his family. After waiting all day without news, Aziz was re-detained and taken to Oakington Reception Centre for "fast-tracking". He is now in Harmondsworth.

Although Aziz’s wife and daughter disappeared while their asylum claim was being processed, the immigration authorities refuse to take any responsibility for them. At first they denied that any of them were in Croydon on 13 June (yet the police have records showing he was sent to them on that day); then they alleged that his wife and child were not with him (untrue). They even suggested that his wife, who speaks no English and had never been in the UK before, had gone off of her own free will (extremely unlikely).

Even the police dragged their feet, though eventually they set up a missing persons search. No result at all so far. (If this had been a white woman and child missing, there would have been a hue and cry immediately. But they are only refugees.)

If Aziz Ahmed is sent back now, he will not only face persecution but will have been separated from his wife and young daughter for ever. Removing Aziz would appear to breach the UK Human Rights Act as well as the European Union and United Nations Conventions on human rights, the right to family life and the rights of the child.

Aziz Ahmed’s lawyer, Louise Christian, feels she has exhausted virtually all the legal possibilities, right up to judicial review (refused). Her firm is likely to have legal aid withdrawn, and to bear both sides’ costs, if they pursue the case further. Only a public campaign can save him now.

Pictures of his wife and little girl are available. There will be a vigil outside the Home Office on 1st August. For further details, contact:

Campaign to Free Aziz Ahmed

45 Carlton Road, Oxford OX2 7SA 

Tel: 01865 511814 E-mail: hkimble@clara.co.uk

Free Aziz Ahmed

This asylum seeker is in grave danger of removal. His wife and 4-year-old daughter went missing from Immigration HQ a year ago, while their asylum claims were being processed,

All three arrived in UK from Tanzania, via Kenya, and all three claimed asylum on 13 June 2001. They were photographed and fingerprinted by Immigration, but the woman and child disappeared while he was being interviewed. Aziz has not seen them since then and has been in detention for over a year, unable to search for them, but desperately worried. The Home Office refuses to accept responsibility for the disappearance, and is trying to remove Aziz from the UK before his wife and little girl are found.

The Immigration Service has made untrue and mutually contradictory excuses:

1. That Aziz and family did not attend on 13 June, and there is no record of his interview.. (But they sent him to South Norwood police, who have a full record.)
2. That he was not accompanied by his wife and daughter. ( Untrue.)

3. That he did not claim asylum for them. (Untrue. They were all photographed and fingerprinted.)
4. That she might have wandered off during his interview. (Virtually impossible. As a Muslim wife, she would wait for her husband. She speaks no English.)
5. That perhaps she met some Swahili speakers and went off with them. (Clearly invented. Why should she forsake her husband?)
6. The final insult:- they suggested that he was not even married to her.

His lawyer, Louise Christian, feels she has exhausted virtually all the legal possibilities. They are likely to have legal aid withdrawn if they pursue the case further, though they are willing to work pro bone. The judge who turned down their application for judicial review said that there was no reason why Mrs Ahmed could not approach any policeman. But she speaks no English, only Swahili, has never been out of Africa before and would be very frightened of men in uniform. The judge also said that there was no need for Aziz to be freed to search for her, as the police were on the case! (But he could find contacts that the police would not know.)

To send him back now would separate him for ever from his wife and little girl. It would almost certainly breach his human rights, also the right to family life and the rights of the child, under the UK Human Rights Act, as well as the EU and UN Conventions. This is one of the worst cases to arise in nine years of government imprisonment of asylum seekers.

Urgent - What you can do

Fax or write to your MP and ask him to contact the Home Secretary.

Fax the Minister for Nationality & Immigration, Beverley Hughes, on 0207 273 2043

Download the petition:

Campaign to Free Aziz Ahmed, Tel: 01865 511814

E-mail: hkimble@clara.co.uk