Action alert: Nigerian gay man Uche Nanbuife faces deportation from Britain

Update 

2 June: Bail has been today denied by a judge despite a report from Medical Justice confirming that Uche was tortured, as he has always said he was, and exactly matching his story. The Home Office said at the hearing that a decision on his case will be given within two weeks. His lawyer is to apply for judicial review of the bail decision.

20 April: An injunction was won tonight on technical grounds stopping the removal.


13 April: On Monday a Nigerian newspaper National Times published an article (large JPG) about Uche warning that he would be subjected to "jungle justice" if returned and "his body would not be found." It claimed that a movement existed against the return of gay Nigerians headed by Toyin Adelaja. It said that "homosexuality is abhorred by the Nigerian populace and there is no law protecting those who practice it."

~~~~~

Uche Nnabuife is a 33-year old Christian Nigerian national who has been detained at Haslar Immigration and Removal Centre, since November 2009. He has received removal directions for 20 April to Lagos. He is gay and is afraid of being killed if he returns to Nigeria.

In 1990 he was discovered with another man and was strung up, badly beaten, burnt and abused leading to several weeks in hospital. He saved money to leave the country, working as a male prostitute, where the property that he was living in was attacked. Fearing for his life, Uche arrived in the UK in 2005. (More on Uche's history)

His fresh claim for asylum has been refused. The judge refuses to accept his sexuality. This is despite the fact that his ex-boyfriend and other close friends are prepared to testify on his behalf that they know him to be gay. He is due to be removed on a chartered flight to Lagos on Wednesday 20 April 2011.

Since his lawyer, Hani Zubeidi, managed to get a judicial review in November 2010, Uche has had a difficult few months. He remains in detention, having had a bail application refused by a judge that has found unfavourably in a number of cases of gay defendants. The one thing he needs to prove, it seems that he can’t whilst in detention.

Although he has a conviction, he had served his time before being detained and has now been in detention for 18 months. The Guardian has recently reported on the indefinite detention and presumption of deportation of foreign nationals with a criminal conviction.

Charity, Medical Justice is sending a doctor to meet Uche and produce a report, based on a physical assessment of his scars. This will support his descriptions of events in Nigeria and we hope enable him to make a fresh claim for asylum. But he needs time for this to be arranged and the report to be written

Uche (right)

As before, Uche just wants his voice to be heard. He is gay, all of his friends know him to be gay. Yet, he has been forced to live in an environment where he is afraid to admit his homosexuality and has no freedom. He would like the government to remember that he is a human being and deserves a second chance to live his life in peace, without threat of torture or worse in Nigeria, which is the reality he faces if deported (publicity on the internet following the publication of this appeal demonstrates violent homophobic attitudes in Nigeria).

Sample comments on the internet about Uche:

Yes he will be killed jo! ....Not that I personaly condone killing...but the reality is that we still live in a culture and environment where such is GREATLY frowned at! he will be Jugded everyday of his life!...tell me if he cant walk freely with another man hand in hand? NEVER!!! at least not if he is in Nigeria!...they will pass judgement on him right away....okada boys/area boys will strip him naked and put tire on his head and parade him...and who will stop them...NOBODY!!!!

Linda, remeber that article you shared on your blog about one couple praticing infidelty and they were caught and paraded naked?...imagine that o!!! Infidelty is wrong but who are we to judge?....what happened to those couple will be nothing compared to if those type hypocrite Nigerians catches up with them.....

Nigeria is as BACKWARD as their fellow Uganda allys in issues like this...Infact show me an African country that can condone such and I will show you a three legged man!

You can help Uche by contacting the Home Secretary

• Downloadable and editable sample letter on Google Docs

Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St London SW1 4DF

Fax: 020 7035 4745
(00 44 20 7035 4745 if you are faxing from outside UK)

Email:
mayt@parliament.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

• See previous action alert for more information

Related articles

• Action alert: save gay Burundian Alvin Gahimbaze (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Nigerian newspaper warns gay asylum seeker that 'jungle justice' awaits if UK returns him next Wednesday (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Report: medical care denied to UK immigration detainees with HIV/Aids

Source: Medical Justice

Most HIV+ immigration detainees helped by Medical Justice have been denied life-saving medication in detention according to our new research.

'Detained and Denied', based on the first ever comprehensive analysis of treatment of HIV+ immigration detainees in the UK draws on medical evidence from eight independent clinicians who assessed the detainees. Many of the 35 men, women and children studied are torture survivors from countries where rape is used as a weapon of war.

As a result of denial of medication some detainees have developed drug resistance, necessitating more complex drug combinations which are inaccessible to many in the country they are being deported to.  Without these drugs they may die within a few years, leaving their children orphans in a country some of them have never been to before.

More than three-quarters of the people in our study who were deported, had little or no medication. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) tried to deport an HIV+ pregnant mother who had been given less than a month's medication even though it is critical that treatment is not interrupted during pregnancy, to avoid a newborn child becoming infected.

Medical Justice has been granted permission by the Court of Appeal to intervene in the case of three HIV-positive (ex)detainees it has assisted who seek to have their detention ruled unlawful because of failure to treat them properly.  The 'Detained and Denied' report will form part of Medical Justice’s evidence that will be submitted.

Medical Justice calls for UK Border Agency to immediately stop detaining people who are HIV+ for immigration purposes.

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In UK, torture survivors "left to rot" in detention

Source: Medical Justice

By Emma Gin

An audit of the "Rule 35" process for reviewing the detention of torture survivors that the UK Border Agency has sat on for over a year was finally published this week, confirming fears that detention centre medical reports on victims of torture have been ignored. UKBA admit their practices "require considerable sharpening".

Rule 35 is the only safeguard UKBA has to ensure vulnerable people, including torture survivors, are not "inappropriately" detained. It requires detention centre doctors to generate a Rule 35 report on "any detained person whose health is likely to be injuriously affected by continued detention". UKBA should then review continued detention.

The audit shows that Rule 35 reports were delayed in most cases and some reports were simply ignored altogether. Where Rule 35 reports were considered, 91% of detainees were not released but the audit report did not provide the analysis UKBA promised of its decisions to not release vulnerable detainees.

"Colleagues from the Medical Justice Network and I regularly see the outcome of Rule 35 failures ; torture survivors and people with serious medical and psychiatric conditions who are routinely and inappropriately detained. Many people fleeing from regimes our government says it abhors are routinely subjected to being wrongfully and harmfully detained each year. Large sums are being wasted in this process in compensation for such errors and in legal costs."
Dr Frank Arnold, Clinical Advisor to the Medical Justice Network

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The UK's continued shameful neglect of migrants' health

Image via Wikipedia

Source: The Lancet

While all eyes are on the death of Jimmy Mubenga at the hands of a private firm contracted by the Home Office, another practice with potential fatal outcome by the UK Borders Agency continues quietly and unnoticed. In the context of a recent court case, it has come to light that people removed to countries where yellow fever vaccination is mandatory for entry are not given the vaccine. How does the Home Office get round this requirement?

A woman and her child who was born in the UK were removed to Cameroon last May without the child being vaccinated. Their appeal was rejected based on a letter from the Border Agency that states that there is no facility or obligation at the Yarl's Wood detention centre to provide yellow fever vaccine, and that “the Healthcare Manager at Yarl's Wood has confirmed that the vaccine can be given on arrival in the Cameroon and would be effective straightaway”. This statement reveals either an astonishing level of incompetence or blatant dishonesty. All travellers are clearly advised to obtain yellow fever vaccination 10 days before travel to achieve adequate levels of immunity. In fact, vaccination certificates will only become valid 10 days after immunisation. So, when this woman and her child were entering Cameroon, were there special arrangements locally or between governments? One can only speculate.

Clearly, this is a further example of shocking indifference and double standards in providing preventive or medical care to those in immigration detention or without a valid UK visa. 2 years ago, we described the case of a woman on dialysis sent back to Ghana as atrocious barbarism. Last month, the charity Medical Justice summarised its findings on mistreatment of children in detention centres in its report ‘State Sponsored Cruelty’: Children in immigration detention [PDF]. Among 50 children facing removal, there was inadequate immunisation or administration of incorrect prophylactic drugs.

Any country that purports to uphold human rights and look after its vulnerable people has a duty to ensure that required prevention and treatment is given to all. Cutting corners in the treatment of asylum seekers and their children is simply disgraceful. 

UK removal fast-track system for asylum seekers ruled illegal

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Source: guardian.co.uk

By Owen Bowcott

A fast-track process for deporting failed asylum-seekers, which gives them little or no notice of their immediate removal, is unlawful, the high court ruled today.

The decision will have an impact on Home Office deportation practices and could lead to more last minute, legal challenges on behalf of those fighting to remain in the UK.

The case was brought by Medical Justice, an organisation that provides independent medical and legal advice to detainees in immigration removal centres.

It argued that the practice of deporting "with little or no notice" was unlawful and targeted the most vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied children and those deemed to be at risk of suicide.

Medical Justice claimed that immigration officers had increasingly used the powers to swoop late at night and escort distressed people to flights leaving only a few hours later, depriving them of the chance to speak to a lawyer and launch last-ditch challenges to removal.

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