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EXTREMELY URGENT
OPPOSE
GOVERNMENT MOVES TO SCRAP the Human Rights Act |
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The cat is out of the bag! Home Secretary Theresa May peddled lies yesterday at the Tory Party Conference in another attack on the Human Rights Act and in particular on Article 8, the right to family life. This further exposes as a sham the government’s “consultation” on Family Migration. We must make our opposition known so the government cannot claim that it has public support. The consultation deadline is tomorrow, 6 October. We urgently ask you to write, even if briefly, to oppose any change in the law which would make it harder for families to be reunited. The “consultation” is a tick box questionnaire with leading questions, and is extremely biased. You don’t have to fill it in -- you can instead send an email with your views to: Familyconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk (postal address below). Proposals relating to spouses or dependent relatives joining a family member in the UK, would put in place more barriers like a requirement for additional documentation and fees. They would impose additional language, income and housing requirements on families to make it harder for members to join them. Extending the probationary period for wives coming to the UK before they are eligible for leave to remain, will increase women’s dependence on their husbands and may make them vulnerable to violence. Increasing the amount of income a parent has to show they have to support their children is unfair and sexist. Traumatised mothers, many of whom have suffered rape and other torture should not be required to find a job with sufficient income before their children can join them. The work of caring for children who may be injured and traumatised by war and who have been forced to survive without their mothers’ love and protection for years is a job in itself. Why doesn’t the government enforce pay equity so that mothers’ wages aren’t the lowest of the low? The “consultation” asks leading questions about the cost impact of particular measures but says nothing about the undermining of communities and society if families are separated. Why isn’t human happiness, the right to be with the people who love and care for us, the right of children to be safe and protected, the right of mothers to live free from worry and grief, not even mentioned in this review? The review says nothing about legal aid cuts. Mothers with indefinite leave to remain or humanitarian protection wanting to bring their children to live with them in the UK will be denied legal aid, as will all of those wanting to pursue family reunion cases. Changes may be illegal but it will be harder to fight them without lawyers. We enclose below brief details of two families who endured years of separation. Both mothers suffered rape and other torture in their home country. They fled to the UK leaving their children behind believing they would be safer without them. They spent years fighting for the right to asylum in the UK, with the support of Women Against Rape (WAR). Their children suffered greatly from being deprived of their mothers’ love and protection. Both mothers eventually won the right to stay in the UK under the Legacy programme but were denied the automatic right to family reunion so had to continue their fight through the courts for several more years. Ms F’s children arrived in the UK earlier this week after 10 years of separation. Both women are members of the All African Women’s Group and co-founders of its Mothers Campaign. Neither woman would be entitled to legal aid under new proposals in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. Neither could have won against the Home Office’s determined opposition without dedicated lawyers. Both cases were misrepresented by the Daily Telegraph, which has waged a campaign against the right to a family life. |
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Please write to oppose government proposals to make it harder for families to be together. Family Consultation, UK Border Agency, 1st Floor Seacole, 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF. Email: Familyconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk |
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Mothers fighting for family reunion Ms F was gang-raped as a young girl by soldiers in Uganda. She moved to Rwanda after marrying but her family was again targeted by the authorities because of her husband's political activities. Soldiers raided the family home, beat and disappeared her husband (who was later killed) and raped her and her 12 year old daughter in front of each other and the whole family. Ms F fled to the UK leaving her three children behind because she knew they would be safer without her. The judge hearing her asylum case found Ms F completely credible but her claim was refused because her lawyer didn’t get psychiatric evidence confirming her need for support to recover from her traumatic experiences. She was detained in Yarl's Wood in 2005 and only released when the Ugandan embassy refused to accept her as a national. She made a fresh asylum claim in 2006 which was never responded to. In March 2010, she won leave to remain in the UK under the legacy programme but this denied her the automatic right to family reunion. Her new lawyer pursued her outstanding claim under the Refugee Convention and in March of this year, she was granted full refugee status under threat of imminent court action. Nonetheless, her eldest son was refused a visa, having turned 18 just before this decision. This was overturned at appeal in July on the grounds of the right to a family life. Repeated protests by WAR at the unjust way the family had been treated then reaped rewards as UKBA granted visas on first application to Ms F's remaining children: her younger son who is 16 and her daughter who is 21. The children arrived on Monday to join their mother in the UK. Ms M fled Burundi in 2003 after she and her family, who are Hutu, were targeted by the Tutsi authorities. Her husband and eldest son were disappeared and her brother was murdered in front of her. Ms M sent her three surviving children to a safe place just in time before being captured, imprisoned for six months and suffering rape and other torture. After escaping, she could not find the children and was forced to flee alone. For years she didn’t know where they were. Her children thought she was dead. In 2007, Ms M won her right to stay in the UK under the legacy programme and in 2008 she finally found her children in Uganda, having spent years and every penny she had, looking for them. It took another two years before they were allowed to join her – twice the Home Office refused their visa applications. This was eventually overturned by the Asylum & Immigration Tribunal who accepted the family’s right to be together and acknowledged that the only safe place where this could happen was in the UK. |
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Legal Action for Women, Crossroads Women’s Centre, 230A Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB Tel: 0207 482 2496 Fax: 0207 209 4761 Email: law[at]allwomencount.net |