Stop the Deportation of Dianne Ngoza
As expected Dianne was detained last Thursday when she signed on at Dallas Court Home Office Reporting Centre Manchester and is now in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre. Upon arriving at YW, Dianne contacted her supporters with the following message:
"Please keep on supporting me and tell the world about what is going on. Fight for everyone please. People are being wrongly detained, even when they have a right to stay in England. I care so much for everyone. I'm so thankful and I've been immensely touched by everyone's support, it's something I'll never forget for the rest of my life" Dianne Ngoza
Dianne's Campaign to Stop her Removal from the UK and how to help
Many thanks to everyone for your continued support of Dianne Ngoza, a Zambian nurse who has lived in the UK for 14 years. Dianne was detained when she went to report at Dallas Court on Wednesday, 16th November, and the Home Office plan to deport her. Dianne has not lived in Zambia for more than 20 years and has no family or contacts there. Her daughter and all her friends are in the UK and this is her home. Dianne has been destitute for six years due to a series of errors by immigration solicitors. She made a new application for leave to remain in the UK four months ago but, at the beginning of November, this was rejected by the Home Office.
She was told she would be deported and that, although she had the right to appeal against the Home Office's decision to refuse her application, she would have to appeal from Zambia.
We are asking the Home Office:
- Why they have not released her from detention in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, Bedfordshire?
Dianne submitted fresh evidence in her case to the Home Office before she was detained and they are legally obliged to consider that
- Why she is not being allowed to appeal against the Home Office decision from within the UK?
New legislation will make in country appeals much more difficult from December 1st but that legislation is not currently in force
- Why her supporters at Dallas Court on Wednesday were told Dianne would be taken to Pennine House, the short-term detention centre at Manchester Airport? She was taken to Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire instead
Dignity for Dianne
As media coverage has shown and pending court cases against Yarl's Wood officers demonstrate, Yarl's Wood is no place for Dianne – or any other woman – to be.
When Dianne's supporters stopped the van from taking her to a detention centre on Wednesday, the duty deputy manager at Dallas Court said it was “not fair” to keep her there because she only had a chair to sit on and had not eaten for nearly seven hours since her arrival at the reporting centre that morning.
He said Dianne needed a bed and a meal. This might have been possible if she had been taken the short distance to Pennine House at Manchester Airport. Instead she was forced to make a three-hour journey to Yarl's Wood where she had to sit on another chair in a waiting room until well after midnight when she was given a bed. The only food she received consisted of two apples.
What You Can Do
- Email of send a letter to your MPs
Dianne is a constituent of Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell.
If you are one of Lucy's constituents, please write to her using the model letter attached here.
You can send the letter by:
- If you are not a constituent of Lucy Powell's, you can still write to your own MP using a different model letter attached here. Use www.writetothem.com or find their contact details through their websites
- Most MPs are on Twitter so you can tweet them as well.
Thank You to Everyone – Dignity for Dianne!
Please notify the campaign it you contact your MP
Dianne Ngoza Campaign, care of RAPAR - Kath Grant <admin@rapar.org.uk> |