Asylum

[DanaC]

OKay, maybe this one needs some background explanation:

In the UK, Asylum seekers are interviewed over and over again by people whose fall back position is to disbelieve. I have many friends amongst the refugee communities and know of many cases where immigration officials have denied the voracity of their claims despite massive medical evidence to the contrary.

For example, one woman who lost all three of her children and was raped many times along with her sister and mother, was refused asylum and told that she was lying and had never borne children. She had medical evidence to prove that she'd borne children and that she had internal scarring from the rape and torture.

Another man, an ex soldier, had been arrested and tortured over a period of two years. His injuries were horrific, the scarring extensive. At his medical examination (immigration doctor) he showed some of h is scars, when he tried to show the rest, he was told "no, there's no need, we've seen enough".

His case was then refused on the grounds of a lack of medical evidence.

One young mum, a freind of my mum's from the refugee council, an asylum seeker from one of the African countries was deported a few months ago. The officers arrived at her house at 4.30 am and dragged her and her five year old child out of the house. They had no time to pack, they had the clothes on their backs. Had the young woman not been carrying a mobile phone to call a freind and tell them what was happening,\ none of us would have known. She'd have just vanished. They'd been in the country for nearly two and a half years. Her case also had been refused on the grounds that her case was not provable, despite medical evidence of torture and rape.

Another friend and his family had come over from Pakistan. They are Amaddiya, a form of Islam, considered by other branches to be unislamic and therefore subject to persecution. The leader of their sect lives in London because it's not safe for him in his homeland. My friend's brother was automatically given leave to stay because of being Amaddiya.....When my friend Imran was interviewed, the officer said "There's no such sect as Amaddi".