Uganda

As many of you will know, on 20 January, Flavia Nambi, our dear friend and colleague, was removed to Uganda. We are deeply upset and enraged at her inhumane treatment. We were in touch with her until the last minute when she called from the plane screaming and terrified.

Detained in Uganda

On arrival at Entebbe airport, Ms Nambi was held for eight hours. Officials demanded £200, an enormous sum in Uganda, to release her. We called on her dedicated MP, John McDonnell, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to intervene. Ms Nambi was eventually let go but how many other people returned by the UK government, are terrorised in this way? What happens to those without international support and no money to pay? A man from a local church who came to collect her was also detained and questioned for an hour.

Brief background

Write to the Home Office demanding an inquiry of what happens to the women, children and men they remove.

See below for sample letters:

Dear Jacqui Smith,

I am writing to express my grave concerns over the wellbeing of Ms. Flavia Nambi and to raise the need for an urgent enquiry into the welfare of all removed asylum seekers. I believe the case of Ms. Nambi is representative of the disturbing realities faced by removed asylum seekers and in consideration of this, demand an investigation into the harsh circumstances women, like Ms. Nambi, as well as children and men must cope with once returned to the countries they have bravely fled.

Oona King, MP who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention, met with a delegation of over forty women from All African Women’s Group. Organised by Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape, rape survivors from Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Kenya and Uganda were able to speak powerfully, movingly and with great courage about what forced them to seek asylum in Britain. Every woman said that the arms trade was one of the crucial issues. A woman from Uganda said “For anyone to arrive here is so hard, it’s a lot of struggle to get here. The British government has a policy, since 1981, of backing Museveni. There’d be no raping and killings in the DRC, Rwanda or any of these places if this support did not happen. We wouldn’t have to come here to seek asylum. But nobody condemns Museveni. Why are we not entitled to asylum then? ”