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People power stalls the deportation of an elderly woman (26 June 2012)

Date: 26/06/2012
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, People power stalls the deportation of an elderly woman

An elderly and disabled asylum seeker from Eritrea who was ordered to be deported has been delayed after a march and demonstration in Sheffield last week.
The Home Office had agreed to halt action against Lemlem Hussein Abdu, 62, who was detained last Tuesday after she visited the UK Border Agency at Vulcan House in Sheffield to renew her asylum claim.
But her fate would be decided today in a meeting by the officials after the issue was put forward by an MP and Bishop of Sheffield.
The woman had applied for asylum in the UK in 2007 but was refused and after being arrested was sent to the Yarl’s Wood detention centre waiting to be flown to Ethiopia on last Sunday but the people demonstrated and were addressed by both the Labour MP for Sheffield Central, Paul Blomfield and the city’s Liberal Democrat leader Shaffaq Mohammed which gave temporary relief to Lemlem.
Home Office minister Damian Green cancelled the Sunday flight and agreed to delay further action until after the meeting in London tomorrow with Blomfield and the Bishop of Sheffield, Rt Rev Steven Croft.
Blomfield said that Lemlem’s support in Sheffield would be highlighted along with the fact that her deportation would shame the UK.
Earlier he posted on the Lemlem Must Stay Facebook group page saying that the decision to remove an elderly, disabled woman to a country where she does not speak the language, where she has never lived and to which she has no affiliation was a gross error which would be quite rightly viewed by many as scandalous.
Last week's demonstration saw a procession to the UK Borders Agency at Vulcan House where a delegation met staff to put the case against the decision to deport Lemlem. A petition was also handed in, with over 1000 signatures asking for Lemlem to be given the right to remain in the UK.
A spokesperson for the agency said that the case had been considered carefully by the department and an immigration judge when Lemlem appealed against an original asylum refusal.
But the Sheffield's campaigners say that Lemlem, who left her home country of Eritrea in 1978, would be left destitute if she was sent to Ethiopia. She fled after her family was murdered during an attack by Ethiopian forces, allegedly targeted due to their support for the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), which was fighting for independence from Ethiopia.
Gina Clayton, trustee of Sheffield's City of Sanctuary said Lemlem was absolutely terrified to the core of being taken to Ethiopia. She has no family and no connections in that culture and no physical ability to work. She doesn't speak the language and she probably would be reduced to begging. The chances are she would simply die of starvation.

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