UKC protest to Home Office over deportation scandal
The UKC has protested to the new Home Secretary Charles Clarke over the ‘inhumane’
detention and deportation of one its committed volunteer guidance workers.
In a letter to the Home Secretary (see abridged version opposite) UKC chief
executive Stephen Bitti calls for a moratorium on all deportations of HIV
positive asylum seekers until they can be guaranteed access to antiretrovirals
in their home countries.
Annie Temba, 46, was forcibly deported to Zambia on 24 November following
her detention by the Immigration Service on 22 November.
In a letter from Zambia, Annie told PN she was held in unsanitary conditions
at Colnbrook detention centre, where she was she was refused access to her
HIV drugs for two days.
She claims Home Office staff denied her pleas for help, failed to show her
key documents and treated her harshly. They alleged her release was ‘not
conducive to the public good’ and that her health posed a threat to
Annie and others.
Her lawyer applied to the High Court for a judicial review to block the deportation
but it came too late to stop her being put on a plane and deported.
Zambia is one of Africa’s poorest and most indebted nations. According
to the National Aids Council that monitors ARV provision in Zambia, as of
March 2004, only 800 women were on ARVs in a country where more than a million
have HIV and Aids.
This means the chances of Annie accessing life saving medication are close
to zero.
Africans with HIV in the UK now fear the Home Office is fast-tracking the
deportation of people with HIV to woo the tabloid press and to deflect criticism
from scandals attached to former Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Neil Gerrard MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aids, told
PN he had heard of a number of cases like Annie’s.
Annie Temba lived in the UK for three years where she trained as an information,
guidance and advice worker and gained a Masters degree from University College
London. She was respected and exemplary volunteer at the UKC where she supported
people living with HIV and also worked as a volunteer trainer for the expert
patients group at Greenwich Primary Care Trust.
In 2001, she was given two years ‘leave to remain’ in Britain,
but her application for asylum on compassionate grounds was rejected and the
Home Office which ruled she had overstayed her time in Britain. They also
accused her failing to give correct identification as well as not having ‘close
ties’ with anyone in this country.
“What harm would I be to the public,” Annie told PN: “My
case should be reviewed because it was mishandled and I was not given the
opportunity to exercise my rights. The whole process has left me emotionally
stressed and I only have medication left for about a week.”
A voluntary HIV worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It is
despicable the way Annie was treated and many of us are really scared that
we will be thrown out next.”
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In a statement to PN, a Home Office spokesman said they could not comment
on individual cases but denied conditions at Colnbrook were unsanitary and
dehumanising. They also denied fast-tracking deportations of people with HIV.
Meanwhile Annie Temba remains in Zambia with no anti-HIV medication and the
probability that her health will deteriorate rapidly.
• 1 million people with Aids
• Average life span 37
• Number of people on ARVs – 6,000
• Number of women on ARVs – 800
• 2 out of three Zambian have no access to clean, safe water
• 80 per cent live on $1 or less a day
• Average cost of ARVs - $8 a month
15 December 2004
Dear
Home Secretary
As the Chief Executive of the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS
(UKC) I write to you concerning the Home Office’s treatment of asylum
seekers
living with HIV and AIDS in the UK.
One of the UKC’s highly respected guidance workers, Annie Kanyaso Temba,
was deported to Zambia on 24 November 2004. Her deportation and treatment
in
detention highlight UKC’s serious concerns about the Home Office’s
HIV and AIDS
policy in relation to asylum seekers.
Annie is a 46 year old mother of two with HIV and a Masters Degree from University
College London. She had been living in the UK on life-saving antiretroviral
medication yet she had her application for asylum on compassionate grounds
rejected. Annie was detained in Beckett House Enforcement Office, on 22 November,
2004, under the Immigration Act 1971 and was given documentation advising
her she was to be removed imminently to Zambia.
She was transferred to Colnbrook Detention Centre and held in unsanitary and
dehumanising conditions (her cell had a blocked drain). Here she was denied
access to her essential HIV medication for almost two days as officers said
it had to be verified by doctors. She was then deported to Zambia.
According to UNAIDS, Zambia has more than one million people living with HIV
and AIDS. Life expectancy is just 37 years. Zambia’s National AIDS Council
reported in March 2004 that only 6,000 people are on antiretroviral medication
and of these just 800 are women. Annie will not be one of them.
The UKC asserts that the United Kingdom Home Office is knowingly deporting
asylum seekers living with HIV and AIDS back to countries such as Zambia,
to face almost certain death from AIDS.
We require clarification from you on the current Home Office policy of deporting
asylum seekers with HIV and AIDS to Zambia. We believe Annie’s deportation
is in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition
of degrading and inhumane treatment).
The UKC notes the increasingly harsh Home Office HIV policy on asylum seekers
with a marked increase in the number of refusals of applications for permission
to remain in the UK on the basis of a person’s medical condition.
The Home Office has also used the improvement of an applicant’s medical
condition due to anti-retroviral therapy as a reason to refuse the application.
This
illustrates a lack of understanding of the effect of ARVs being halted or
disrupted. The disruption of treatment and/or its unavailability means the
applicant’s condition will significantly worsen and may lead to their
death.
Upon arrival in Zambia, Annie’s last message to UKC advised that she
had less than a week’s supply of HIV medication, no job and no idea
how she was going to access antiretroviral medication in her own country.
The UKC further requests a moratorium on all deportations of people living
with HIV and AIDS unless the UK can guarantee that upon return individuals
will have speedy and affordable access to antiretroviral medication in their
home countries.
We look forward to your response.
Stephen Bitti
Chief Executive of the UKC
