Keep Kay in the UK!

50 year old, Kayode Iwalo, known to everyone as ŒKay‚, was detained in his home at 93 Petershill Drive at 6:00am on Monday morning, 11th July 2011. Kay was in his bed asleep when the police let themselves into his flat using a master key.

Three dark blue UKBA vans and an unmarked police car were used in the early morning operation which involved 8 UKBA immigration officials and Strathclyde Police despite Kay not having any record of violence.

Kay is currently in Dungavel detention centre and has been given removal directions for Wednesday 20th July on a private charter flight, number PVT009 to Lagos at 23.20 hours.

Kay is very well known in Glasgow as he has volunteered with a number of agencies including North Glasgow Integration Network, Tron St Mary‚s church in Red Road and at the Citizen Advice Bureaus in both Maryhill and Parkhead. Recently he‚d also started volunteering twice a week at Unity‚'No Borders'‚ bookshop in Govan.

Originally from Nigeria, Kay came to the UK as a student in 1982, almost 30 years ago. He recently separated from the mother of his three children who all live in London when he came to Scotland just over 18 months ago. His three children, aged 12, 11 and 4 were all born in the UK and are British citizens as their mother is. Despite the distance, Kay keeps in almost daily contact with them, speaking to them by phone as he cannot afford to travel to see them.

Kay decided to claim asylum in the UK in 2009, after his father, a barrister and church pastor, was killed and his family's home was burnt down, in a series of clashes with jihadists‚ in northern Nigeria.

Kay's difficulties began when the UKBA alleged that someone else had used Kay's identity to claim asylum two years before, in 2007, and had been given Indefinite Leave to Remain. Due to the deception, the Indefinite Leave to Remain. was rescinded and immigration officials and the courts have refused to accept Kay is genuine since then, despite the picture of the man who had used Kay‚s identity to claim asylum had a much slimmer face and distinctive tribal marks on his face.

The UKBA plan to remove Kay to Nigeria on one of the notorious charter flights and there are already other detainees in Harmondsworth and Yarls Wood scheduled to be removed on the same flight. Kay, and the others, urgently need your support.

Nigeria is not safe: Earlier this year Human Rights watch reported that 'Deadly election-related and communal violence in northern Nigeria following the April 2011 presidential voting left more than 800 people dead, The violence began with widespread protests by supporters of the main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim from the Congress for Progressive Change, following the re-election of incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the south, who was the candidate for the ruling People's Democratic Party. The protests degenerated into violent riots or sectarian killings in the northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara. Relief officials estimate that more than 65,000 people have been displaced.'

The protesters started burning tires, and the protests soon turned into riots. The rioting quickly degenerated into sectarian and ethnic bloodletting across the northern states. Muslim rioters targeted and killed Christians and members of ethnic groups from southern Nigeria, who were perceived to have supported the ruling party, burning their churches, shops, and homes. The rioters also attacked police stations and ruling party and electoral commission offices. In predominately Christian communities in Kaduna State, mobs of Christians retaliated by killing Muslims and burning their mosques and properties.‰ http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/16/nigeria-post-election-violence-killed-800

We ask you to fax, email or phone the numbers below to stop the flight.

Write to the Home Secretary

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

Emails: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
"CIT - Treat Official" <CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

Model letter to Home Secretary: KayMinisterletter.pdf

Petition: KayPetition.pdf

Dawn raids return?
Kay's detention raises some worreis that the UKBA may be starting to raid people's homes again. We don't want to spread alarm but until we know more, we'd like to remind everyone that UNITY runs a 24 hour emergency phone line. If the UKBA come to your door, or your neighbour's door, or you see their vans in the street, then please phone UNITY on 0141 427 7992

This is a picture of what the UKBA enforcement vans look like. You can usually see them parked in the car park behind the reporting centre at Brand Street


If you see this van phone UNITY on 0141 427 7992


The UNITY Centre
30 Ibrox Street
Glasgow
G51 1AQ

0141 427 7992
www.unitycentreglasgow.org
info@unitycentreglasgow.org

The UNITY Centre is run entirely by volunteers and funded completely by donations from our supporters. We need your help! If you would like to help by making a donation or by volunteering you can find more details on our website. Thank you! UNITY!