JULIET OSARENWINDA MUST STAY!
Victim of trafficking and forced marriage faces deportation
THIS WEDNESDAY –
Please take action now!
END the racist system of dealing with trafficking victims in the UK
Protection & Justice NOT Cover-up & Deportation
Take the Home Office out of the process!
- Tell British Airways they must not fly Juliet Osarenwinda to a life of abuse and rape
- Demand the Home Office reverses its refusal to recognise Juliet as a victim of trafficking
Juliet O is a member of Movement for Justice, an asylum seeker from Nigeria and a victim of trafficking. She has been a key organiser on each of the Surround Harmondsworth demonstrations, each time bringing more and more women with her. At Surround Harmondsworth #3 on Saturday 9th August she organised a group of over 20 women to come down to London from Birmingham. She is a fighter for justice, determined to inspire and teach other women how to fight for themselves. It is what she said when she spoke on 9th August:
„I want everyone to have that zeal, the power to move and fight“ Juliet described detention in words that struck a chord with everyone who has been through this inhuman system: „I was detained for three weeks, but it was like a thousand years“
Two days later when she went for her regular appointment at the Home Office reporting centre in Birmingham she was sent back into detention – in Yarl’s Wood – for the third time. Now she is threatened with deportation to Nigeria on Wednesday, 17th September on British Airways flight BA083.
Juliet sought safety in the UK, to rebuild her life away from abuse & forced marriage and have a future like every young woman wants. In Nigeria she was forced to promise marriage to an older man who had lent her father money that he could not repay. For months she was subjected to repeated rape and beatings. She claimed asylum as soon as she escaped to the UK, but was immediately detained and within weeks her asylum claim was refused and certified as ‚clearly unfounded‘ with no right of appeal in the UK.
She managed to get out of detention but – vulnerable and alone, and terrified of being sent back to Nigeria – she ended up in the hands of a trafficker. She was forced to do brothel work, moved from place to place, threatened with being sent back to Nigeria if she refused, beaten if she protested. She only ‚escaped‘ when the brothel was raided by police – she was handed over to the Home Office because of her immigration status and detained in Yarl’s Wood again.
Victims of trafficking from outside the EU are dealt with by the Home Office (EU/EEA citizens are dealt with by the UKHTC), a racist policy that means non-EU citizens are far less likely to be recognised as victims of trafficking than those from EU countries. The Home Office gets to decide if someone is a victim of trafficking or not and once that decision is made there is no right of appeal! (See this Guardian article for more information)
Juliet was trraumatised by her experience, but the Home Office used the most trifling discrepancies in her account as grounds for refusing to recognise that she was as a victim of trafficking. Months later when Juliet had been released from detention, she felt able to go to the police and report what had happened to her, but they dropped the investigation when the Home Office who told them she was not a trafficking victim!
The policy of the Home Office making trafficking decisions means in practice that the traffickers, the perpetrators, get away time and time again whilst the victim is treated as a liar, a criminal and deported.
Now Juliet has been given ‚removal directions‘ for this Wednesday, 17th September, on British Airways‘ flight BA083, from Heathrow Terminal 5 , leaving 22.20hrs (10.40pm) for Ajuba, Nigeria.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
1. CONTACT BRITISH AIRWAYS
Email BA asking them not to fly Juliet Osarenwinda on flight BA083 this Wednesday (17th September) at 10.20pm or any other flight.
EMAIL Mr Keith Williams
(Executive chairman of British Airways) keith.x.williams@ba.com
(we are not certain this email works but its the only one we found)
TWEET @British_Airways and Tweet again and again.
What you can say to British Airways….
The deportation of Juliet Osarenwinda on flight BA083 on Wednesday 17th September at 22.20hrs is a forced deportation and an abuse of human rights. Juliet Osarenwinda has been an important figure in the fight to expose abuse in the UK immigration system, as a victim of forced marriage and trafficking her life is in danger if she were returned to Nigeria.
You are responsible for actions and transactions that you permit on your property, within your own vehicles. In enquiries that have been made to the UK Home Office, they have been very clear on this point: you are not obliged to take this passenger – you do so, they stress, voluntarily and without any pressure from the UK government – and in so doing you accept the normal moral and legal responsibility for the outcomes of your own commercial decisions
Already many airlines have refused to fly passengers who are not being removed voluntarily. You will be familiar with the very serious concerns raised about the private contractors hired by the Home Office to ‚escort‘ deportees. Your airline has a duty of care to your passengers. The Home Office has confirmed that you have the right to refuse to fly someone if you have serious concerns about their safety. You also have a responsibility to your other passengers for their safety, Ms Osarenwinda will not be going voluntarily, she is extremely distressed and frightened by this deportation and fears for her life, she will not be silent, she will try everything to get off that plane. You are well aware of the high profile deaths of detainees caused by the restraint used by ‚escorts‘ in forced deportation, do you really want British Airways reputation tarnished as the airline who allows restraints & beatings to take place on its flights?
Please cancel Ms Osarenwinda’s ticket with haste, her home office reference is: O11488822
2. Contact the British Airline Pilot’s Association, ask that they advise their members to not support this abuse of human rights, use the arguments above and the same arguments as with Unite (below)
Telephone: 020 8476 4000
Fax: 020 8476 4077
Email: balpa@balpa.org
3. JOIN US at Heathrow Terminal 5 at 7pm, Wednesday 17th September. Demand BA don’t fly an innocent person to imminent danger and let the other passengers know about Juliet so that they can protest.
4. Sign and share Juliet’s petition
5. EMAIL and CALL Unite the Union’s Heathrow Team
Tweet @unitetheunion
CONTACT UNITE THE UNION AND ASK THAT THEY ADVISE WORKERS NOT TO CO-OPERATE WITH Juliet Oarenwinda’s REMOVAL (or any forced removal)…
(what you can say)
Given that people have been killed and seriously injured in transit while being deported, Unite should surely be advising its members not to participate in such actions, and offering them support if they are pressured to do so by their employers. You should not have to turn a blind eye to violence and abuse going on in your own workplace, wherever you work, as a condition of employment, nor should their members have to take part in actions that violate human rights.
CALL: 020 8800 4281
EMAIL the Regional Secretary Peter Kavanagh on peter.kavanagh@unitetheunion.org
6. EMAIL THE HOME SECRETARY & IMMIGRATION MINISTER: Tell them that Juliet is a clear example of a woman who has been subjected to rape and abuse who should never have been detained. Tell them that the government talks about protecting women and children yet detain women who need protection. Tell them Juliet’s story (above) and tell them that if she is deported it makes a mockery of the governments stated commitment to end abuse of women, forced marriage and human trafficking. Tell them that it is outrageous that the Home Office gets to decide who is a victim of trafficking and they should be stripped of this power if there is to be any justice for victims of trafficking. Demand that Juliet’s case as a victim of trafficking is reconsidered and that she be given the protection she needs
Her Home Office ref is: O11488822
mayt@parliament.uk (Home Secretary)