Campaign Emails

The sky is blue today. I walk to the Unity centre early expecting to open up and am surprised to find someone already there. I sit and have some tea, chat, and do some tidying and cleaning. The people start coming in to sign the book, go to the home office, then come back and cross their names from the book.

There is a family in detention. Their flight back to where they fled from is scheduled for tomorrow. Someone is talking to them and their lawyer on the phone. Sending out emails asking people to fax the home office and fax the airline to try and get it stopped. There are 3 children in the family. The have been in detention for 6 weeks since their last flight was stopped at the last minute. Now they are booked on another one tomorrow.

There are some people new to unity today who I register. One man lead strikes as a member of the opposition party in his country and there was a government crackdown making it dangerous for him to stay. He had just arrived in the UK. Another man has been here for 8 years. He gets no financial help and has nowhere to live. He also has no right to work and must report at the Home Office every day until his paperwork is sorted out. He is completely reliant on friends. When I suggest that he needs a lawyer because he hasn't had one for a while he just shakes his head and says, it's no use, it's no use. I try to argue with him, that if he is signing at the home office and he wants us to help him if he is detained it would be better to have a lawyer who already knows his case. He takes the list of lawyers and says he will come back.

A woman comes in explaining it is her first time here too. She has been here for 4 years and for the last 3 also has had no home, no financial support and no right to work making her dependent on friends. The friends that she is staying with are thinking of moving and she is scared. She goes and sees her lawyer, comes back and just starts crying. "I don't know where my family is, all in my country is killing and it is just getting worse, I belong to Scotland, I don't want to be sent to London, I can't go back to my country, I am doing well in college, where am I going to live, how am I going to live? Whenever I come to the home office I am so scared." I don't have any answers for her questions.

A man comes in who is a friend, he's helped me out in the past. His friend was dawn raided. This means that 6 men came to his door at 6.30am on Sunday morning, handcuffed him, didn't give him time to collect any belongings and took him to Dungavel detention centre. His flight is scheduled for Thursday. I talk to the lawyer and he doesn't seem to think that anything can be done. My friend talks to his friend and translates. He faces religious persecution if he returns to his country. I send out a campaign email to get support for his case but time is short.

2 older girls sit on the sofa playing noughts and crosses waiting for their parents to come back from the home office. I teach them how to play dots and squares as well and they pick it up quickly.

2 people haven't crossed their names off at the end of the day. I call them up and both are fine, they just forgot to come back after the long wait in the home office.

I call up the family in detention whose flight is scheduled for tomorrow. I speak to one of the children. Good news! They won't be removed tomorrow. I put a line through their removal date on the office board and write "cancelled".