Many of you will know Mohammad Hussain from Doncaster. He is a big man with a big heart. Mohammad was one of the organisers and stewards on the 3 Day Dignity Not Detention march last October.The march ended with a protest outside Lindholme detention centre. Now Mohammad is inside Lindholme. He is threatened with deportation to Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan this Wednesday 14th May from Heathrow Airport at 17.05.
Mohammad has stated that, if he is deported to Iraqi Kurdistan, “my life would be in serious danger”. He left Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999 because of threats made against him by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP and its security apparatus now controls much of Iraqi Kurdistan and runs the city of Irbil – the proposed location for Mohammad’s deportation.
Since this time, persecution of political opponents of the KDP has increased, according to reports from Amnesty International, the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and the UNHCR.
There is ample evidence that political opponents of the Kurdish Democratic Party have faced ill-treatment, imprisonment and grievous violence from the party’s security service upon their forced return to KDP-controlled Irbil. Following the forced deportation of 60 Iraqi Kurds from the UK to Irbil in February 2008 the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees reported that guards from the Kurdish Regional Government “knew nothing of human rights”.
Mr Hussain’s deportation would not just be a grave threat to his life. It would be a loss to Doncaster and South Yorkshire. Apart from Mohammad’s role in South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and his active defence of other Iraqi Kurds threatened with deportation, he has played an important role in community life in Doncaster. He is Treasurer of the Doncaster Focus Group (a co-ordinating group of refugee and migrant volunteers), an active volunteer with the Northern Refugee Centre and one of the best known and loved members of the Kurdish community in South Yorkshire.
What You Can Do to Help
1.Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State for the Home Office asking that Mohammad Hussain be granted protection in the UK. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Fax: 020 7035 3262 (00 44 20 7035 3262 if you are faxing from outside UK)
Email Jacqui Smith: smithjj@parliament.uk
Write to Jacqui Smith: Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Buildings, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
2. Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rosie Winterton MP for Doncaster Central Constituency. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Parliamentary Office:
Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel. 0207 219 0925
Fax: 0207 219 2811
Constituency office:
Room 9
The Trades and Labour Club
115 St Sepulchre Gate West
Doncaster
DN1 3AH
Tel: 01302 326297
Fax: 01302 342921
Email: wintertonr@parliament.uk
Please notify the campaign of any faxes/emails sent to Jacqui Smith or Rosie Winterton at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk or 07969 156 082
3. Copy and distribute the campaign leaflet for Mohammad: see attachment. Contact Graeme Huston, the editor of Doncaster Free Press: graeme.huston@doncastertoday.co.uk or Telephone : 01302 819111 or Fax : 01302 348523. Contact the Doncaster Star newspaper: Star Newsdesk News Editor, Telephone : 0114 276 7676 or email: starnews@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk
Stuart Crosthwaite, SYMAAG Secretary
Contact the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk
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