The Tory government has run the asylum system with no serious attempt to fulfil the requirements of the UN Refugee Convention.
The media present immigration issues in terms of numbers and the Tories do the same. Guess what? Migrants are people with hopes and dreams. This is my story of how I came to fully realize this.
I first met Pride Mbi Agbor from Cameroon 9 months ago. He was part of a Sheffield City of Sanctuary (CoS) event at which asylum seekers and refugees were telling their stories. Pride’s story was horrific but throughout his telling of it he was warm and even funny. I immediately liked him. Despite everything he had experienced he was positive, upbeat and he smiled and laughed easily.
Pride’s story relates to the oppression of South Cameroonians, those who speak English, by the French speaking government. In 1960, the French-administered part of Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroun. In 1961, the English speaking South Cameroon federated with it to become the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
This is when the current problems began. The government have never really recognized the human rights of the English speaking minority. Since 1982, the President Paul Biya has systematically suppressed this population of around 5 million people. The natural resources of Cameroon are in the South but the people there don’t receive the benefits of them. Currently, protests on the streets by South Cameroonian activists are being met with violence and killings.
So Pride and his father became active in the South Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a human rights organisation campaigning for self-determination. Pride came to the UK in 2009 to study Computer Engineering at Portsmouth University. He had been here only two weeks when he received the tragic news that his father had been killed by government forces because of his campaigning activities with SCNC.
A couple of years later, and with his mum in hiding, Pride decided to seek asylum in the UK. This meant that he was unable to continue with his studies and, one year later, he was sent to live in Sheffield. He had no choice over the matter: the Home Office simply sent him.
Pride told me more about the SCNC. I asked him if it had an armed wing. He looked at me smiling and said ‘No, we have never even broken a glass!’ Their website states: “The SCNC is a group advocating for self-determination aiming at obtaining independence for the former British Southern Cameroons. It is a non violent and a non political group of activists with its motto; “The Force Of Argument Not The Argument Of Force”.
Peaceful demonstrations like this have met with a violent response from the government, with at least six protesters killed.
On Sunday the 2nd April Pride was on Radio Five talking about his experiences. I learned that, as an asylum seeker living on £5 per day, he could only afford to eat once a day. He spoke with eloquence and dignity about his experiences.
Pride is a huge asset to the community in Sheffield. He volunteers for three organisations, one of which is the City of Sanctuary, and is part of a network of friends and activists in the city. If he was given permission to stay and allowed to work, he would be a wonderful asset to Sheffield and the wider UK. He is incredibly resourceful and very well liked –and loved!
The latter was proven to be the case in a very distressing way. On Tuesday the 21st of March, I heard that Pride had been taken to a detention centre, Morton Hall in Lincoln, and was to be deported back to Cameroon the following Friday. Whilst I was shocked and worried, I immediately switched into online campaigning mode. Sheffield CoS was superb and had put together an action plan. I wrote a letter and e-mailed the Home Office myself and then went on to social media to urge others to do the same. Large numbers of people in Sheffield and beyond were doing exactly the same thing and the Home Office were inundated with letters and e mails. I am very proud to come from a city that does this.
The next day was a different story. I rang Pride in detention and he sounded just like he usually does and started the conversation by asking me how I was! But what Pride said about his current situation was very bleak. He wasn’t optimistic. After a while, I could feel myself beginning to cry and he seemed to go quiet too, so we finished the conversation with me telling him that I would ring him tomorrow. I didn’t want it to be the last conversation that I ever had with him! I was very upset and filled with gloom. I wasn’t optimistic about his prospects either.
The next day brought another new twist. I woke up feeling very sad. Then I received a text from my neighbour, who has also worked with Pride. She told me that she had seen on Facebook that Pride’s flight had been postponed. I wept with joy this time! I then rang him at mid-day and he told me that he was in London but that he was being released and was coming home to Sheffield! I couldn’t believe it. He told me that he was very tired.
I found out later that he had been taken down to London to Heathrow Airport surrounded by four security guards, even though they had received information that Pride’s deportation flight had been deferred. Their excuse was that they hadn’t received official confirmation from the Home Office yet! They kept him in another deportation centre, right next door to the airport, until eventually they released him. Pride had been driven all the way from Lincoln to Heathrow for no reason whatsoever and then had to come back to Sheffield the same day. This is a classic example of Home Office incompetence, all at the taxpayer’s expense.
The whole story is a travesty of justice, human rights and is in complete and direct contravention of the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention: “The core principle is non-refoulement, which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom. This is now considered a rule of customary international law.” (UNHCR, The 1951 Refugee Convention).
Anyone who has been following the recent news from Cameroon and knows about Pride’s active membership of SCNC would realize that he was, and is, in that very situation. Currently, the government have been killing English- speaking activists on the streets and recently imposed an internet shut down that lasted for 3 months. We almost never read or hear about this in our media.
So, how could the Home Office come to make the decision to deport Pride? His Labour MP, Paul Blomfield, found out. The Home Office didn’t have ANY country specific information on the risks in Cameroon and therefore were making the decision based upon no criteria whatsoever.
This is incredible. No matter how much the situation in a country worsens, as is the case with Cameroon, a so-called ‘failed’ asylum seeker will be sent back! This really does ‘beggar belief’. Pride’s solicitor has made a number of submissions since his first ‘failed’ attempt to seek refuge in the UK, each one presenting fresh evidence, and not one had been given any consideration because of this ludicrous situation. This lack of country specific information is yet another of many examples of major incompetence within the Home Office.
So, Pride was two days away from being sent back to Cameroon to almost certain death, based upon a completely flawed and inadequate set of procedures.
At the time of writing, Pride’s position has still not been settled and those of us who care are holding our breath while the Home Office make their decision. We hope that they will make the moral and humane decision which meets the requirements of the core principle of the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention to which the United Kingdom is a signatory.
Pride’s story is not at all an isolated case. I have no doubt that some asylum seekers will have been deported to their deaths. The current government have run the asylum system section of the Home Office with no serious attempt to fulfil the requirements of the UN Refugee Convention. Mistakes, bureaucratic nonsense, making rules up on the spot and downright wrong decisions are all everyday occurrences. This needs to be changed immediately. If Labour wins the election on Thursday, a priority must be for the UK to meet its moral and legal obligations to asylum seekers and refugees. They are humans not statistics.