Liam Byrne, Immigration Minister

2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

fax 020 7219 2417

emails liam.byrne.submissions@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and byrnel@parliament.uk

Dear Mr Byrne,

I write about Ms Mercy Murua (HO ref: M1116337) and Mr Peter Gichura (HO ref: G1053958), two disabled activists and wheelchair users from Kenya, who are under threat of deportation.  They fled Kenya in 2001, following death threats from the police for their political activity in Mwanzo Disabled Development Society (MDDS), an organization of disabled street hawkers.  Despite elections in 2002, fighting has continued in the country and both fear their lives will be in danger if they are returned.

Ms Mercy Murua is a member of WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities).  Her claim for asylum on grounds of political persecution, ethnic persecution, access to medical care and refuge from rape has so far been rejected by the Home Office. 

As a baby, Ms Mercy Murua contracted polio and was placed in a children’s home.  Almost all of her childhood was spent in care.  In 1992, her parents who are of Kikuyu descent lost their home in a land-grab by Kalenjin people and others, Kalenjin people being the tribe of repressive President arap Moi.  Ms Murua moved to Nairobi, and in 1997, started street hawking to survive.

Street hawkers who are Kikuyu were targeted by the Nairobi police.  Those who could, ran off, but disabled people could not escape.  They were beaten with staves, brutally loaded onto lorries, often without their crutches, etc., taken to the police station and detained.  Ms Murua was particular vulnerable as a woman.  Local police jeered that she could not fight them off and she suffered repeated sexual abuse and rape, including while detained in a police cell.  As a result of one attack, she became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter.   Anne Neale of Women Against Rape says: “Rape by police should be recognised as persecution, and so as grounds for asylum but when Ms Murua spoke about her traumatic experiences, she was accused of embellishing her claim and her case dismissed.”

Mr Peter Gichura is a father, a wheelchair user and disability activist.  He applied for asylum from political persecution and for medical treatment without which he would die. His most recent application in 2006, when his spinal injury worsened, was refused with the words: "a person's medical condition must be at such a critical stage that there are compelling humanitarian grounds for not removing them to a country which lacks the medical and social services to prevent acute suffering before death".  Is it acceptable that the right to life under the European Convention been reduced purely to the right not to suffer unduly whilst dying? 

When experts like Rachel Hurst OBE (Disability Awareness in Action and member of the Advisory Group to the government Office for Disability Issues) confirm that, if deported, Mr Gichura, as someone with a spinal injury, would almost certainly not survive for long -- how much more “compelling” or “critical” can someone’s situation be? 

Mr Gichura was detained in Harmondsworth detention centre twice, most recently in August 2006, in appalling conditions where he was unable to use the bathroom and toilet properly, was searched in a painful and threatening way, and on the first occasion (February 2006), given the wrong medication.  He has launched a legal case under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Human Rights Act (HRA), however, if removed, he will be denied even the basic right to be present to prepare his own case.

Payday, a multiracial network of men, says: “Peter Gichura is a valued member of our network.  He was persecuted for defending the rights of disabled people.  We now defend him from almost certain death.  With his life and organising experience he makes an enormous contribution, which neither we not the community in general can be deprived of.”

Support has come from hundreds of individuals and organisations, including representatives of five major disability charities. 

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, writing to you in support of Mr Gichura on 12 October, said: “I would underline the wider social consequences of handling cases like these in ways that entrench . . . a perception that the UK immigration regime is unbalanced, unjust and inhumane.  I recall . . .the European Convention on Human Rights, ‘Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law’”.  He proposes discussion with the Home Office “to find some more humane middle ground” than the current refusal of medical grounds.

People with disabilities have not only the right to life but also the right to live free from fear. 

We urge you to grant Mercy Murua and Peter Gichura the right to stay.

Yours sincerely,