Lemlem, Still Here, Still Fighting
Removal was stayed after intervention by her MP Paul Blomfield who will meet with the Home Secretary on Tuesday to discuss Lemlem's case.
Paul Blomfield said: The minister has agreed to meet me and the Bishop of Sheffield next week and to halt Lemlem's deportation until then. I told him of the support Lemlem has in this city and that it would shame the UK to deport an elderly, disabled woman to a country where she has no links.
Many thanks to all who have taken actions
Friends of Lemlem / Elizabeth Larminie <larminie@googlemail.com>
Lemlem Hussen Abdu Belongs to Sheffield
Lemlem Hussen Abdu a national of Eritrea and long time resident of Sheffield, is currently in detention and due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET701 to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday 24th June @ 21.00 hrs.
Lemlem a 62-year old disabled woman with multiple, deteriorating health issues. Originally fled her home country of Eritrea (before it achieved independence) in 1978 when Ethiopian forces murdered her family. She has been unable to return ever since. She fled to Sudan where she lived in a refugee camp for six years and was granted refugee status by the UN.
In 1984, Lemlem moved to Saudi Arabia on a work visa to take up a position as a domestic servant. In 1994, when her UN Refugee Convention document was due for renewal, Lemlem's employers decided to obtain an Ethiopian passport for Lemlem instead, to be used when she was accompanying them on periodic trips to the UK. They obtained this passport without her informed consent. The Home Office has accepted that Lemlem did not know from which country the passport was obtained. Lemlem was unable to read or write and was not in a position to refuse, nor to ask for an explanation. She never saw or held the passport.
On her third visit to UK, in 2000, Lemlem fell in a children's playground and broke her leg. She spent several weeks in hospital, and the injury left her with a disability that prevented her from doing heavy work. Accordingly, her employer stopped paying her a wage. On a subsequent UK visit, in 2007, her employer abandoned her in a shopping centre in London. Lemlem then had no choice but to seek asylum in the UK. She was refused as were subsequent appeals.
Although the Home Office has accepted that Lemlem comes from what is now Eritrea and is ethnically Eritrean, it is still attempting to forcibly remove Lemlem to Ethiopia on the basis that she has an Ethiopian passport - despite the fact this was obtained without her informed consent. If Lemlem were to be removed to Ethiopia, she would have no means of supporting herself. Her GP has stated that due to her multiple health problems and disability Lemlem is not fit to work and never will be, and that her condition is deteriorating. There is furthermore no welfare system in Ethiopia and Ethiopian society would be hostile to an Eritrean like Lemlem, so it is highly likely that she would end up destitute. With deteriorating eyesight and severe mobility problems her prospects would be very bleak and she would be at risk of starvation.
Friends of Lemlem in Sheffield are adamant that she should not be removed from the UK. Lemlem is a well-loved member of her community she has worked hard to learn English since arriving in this country and has won many friends from all walks of life thanks to her kind nature and positive attitude. Lemlem has been seeking sanctuary for most of her life now in immigration detention, facing removal and the possibility of a lonely death far from anyone she knows. She would like to make Sheffield her home so she can finally have safety and security.
Please help us keep Lemlem in Sheffield. let us know of any actions taken:
Elizabeth Larminie <larminie@googlemail.com> / Gina Clayton <gina.clayton@blueyonder.co.uk>
What you can to do help:
1) Email/Fax/Phone Girma Wake, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ethiopian Airlines. Request that he does not carry Lemlem Hussen Abdu on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET701 to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday 24th June @ 21.00 hrs. Download model letter LemlemHussenAbduGW.doc
Email: loncto@ethiopianairlines.com
Fax: 020 7747 9339
Phone Admin/Management: 020 8987 9086
2) 2) Email/Faxi Theresa May, Home Secretary
Ask her to exercise her discretionary powers to stay the removal and release Lemlem Hussen Abdu from detention and to grant her protection in the UK. Download model letter, LemlemHussenAbduTM.doc or alternatively write your own one. Please remember to quote Lemlem's Home Office Reference number A1357578 in any correspondence.
Fax: 020 7035 4745
Emails:
mayt@parliament.uk
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
pscorrespondence@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
"CIT - Treat Official" <CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>
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Source for this Message
Friends of Lemlem
Elizabeth Larminie <larminie@googlemail.com>
Gina Clayton <gina.clayton@blueyonder.co.uk> |