Meet Maria Ikow And Give Her Your Support, On October 7th 2003

Maria is a young woman who has come to the UK to escape the violence in Somalia. The government has refused her appeals to stay in the UK. Many Somalian people face similar problems.

The campaign to keep Maria here is a campaign to defend all asylum seekers.

Please come to the meeting:
Tuesday October 7th 2003
8pm-9pm
Malcolm X Centre
141 City Road
St Pauls
Bristol BS2

Maria will tell us her story with the help of interpreter and supporter Ahmed Suleiman, and BDASC member Paulette North will speak on how to build a campaign, based on the experience of our last 2 successful campaigns.

Defend Maria Ikow

Maria Ikow is  a Somali woman who is 28 years old and severely traumatized. Maria has witnessed the murder of her husband and the rape of her sister. She had to leave her seven-year-old son, Mohammed, in Somalia with his elderly grandmother.  She  herself  is ill  and has an unexplained lump in her throat. 

Sarah McMurchie of Douglas & Partners is acting as Maria's solicitor. Sarah has written to the Home Office to ask for her case to be reopened and her appeals to be renewed. This has been denied. Sarah has now written a letter to the Home Office asking  that Maria be allowed to remain on compassionate grounds. She should not be deported because there is ongoing conflict in Somalia and  no  effective government to protect Maria.

All Maria's appeals have failed and she  is living under the threat of deportation.  Although the Home Office is  in fact unlikely to be able to deport Maria , they have not lifted the removal order, which means she is forced to live in  legal limbo, fear and destitution.  She is excluded from any kind of support. She is forced to sleep on the floor of a friend in Barton Hill.
Maria's campaign is being supported by BDASC

What you can do to help:
BDASC has produced leaflets/petitions/model letters which can be obtained from below.

BDASC, Box 41
Greenleaf Books
82 Colston Street
Bristol BS1 5BB
hughesbob@compuserve.comhughesbob@compuserve.com
http://www.asylumBristol.org.uk/