Local Playwright and Human Rights Campaigner told to leave UK
Article published: Thursday, November 19th 2009
Lydia Besong and her husband Bernard Batey fled Cameroon and came to the UK seeking asylum on 17 December 2006. On 29 October 2009 the couple returned to their home in Rochdale to find a letter from the Border and Immigration Agency informing them that they must return to Cameroon, where Lydia she is still wanted by the authorities since escaping prison.
Because of their political beliefs, the couple had been arrested and tortured in their home country, and while in gaol, Lydia was raped by one of the guards. Both are members of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), a party, declared illegal by the government, which fights for the liberation and freedom of southern Cameroon whose motto is “the force of argument, not the argument of force”.
Lydia is a writer, whose debut play “How I Became an Asylum Seeker” is being staged by Community Arts Northwest (CAN) on 3 December at the Zion Theatre in Hulme. She wrote the play partly to find a way of coping with her horrific experiences, and to raise awareness about asylum. She is also on the Management Committee of Woman Asylum Seekers Together (WAST).
More recently Lydia has been working alongside RAPAR and Commonword collecting stories about those living in destitution in Manchester. Commonword’s Artistic Director, Pete Kalu, said: “Lydia has been a tremendous resource in helping us to find new pathways to new writers in communities.” This publication is due out in the spring.
Lead Artistic Manager for CAN Jasmine Ali said: “Lydia has been an inspiration for the artistic team with her dedication and commitment to the project. Without her contribution WAST would not have had the confidence to devise and perform their play to a wider audience.”
Lydia’s husband, Bernard, has been equally inspirational within the community. He has been leading the national award-winning Human Rights organisation RAPAR in partnership with Revive, the Boaz Trust and Citizens for Sanctuary. Together they have opened Manchester’s first voucher exchange network.
A campaign to stop the couple’s deportation has been launched and is garnering much support, under the umbrella of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns. Both current and former MPs, Paul Rowen and Sir Cyril Smith, are also backing their constituents along with Reverend Graham Lindley, Parish Priest at St Anne’s Church in Rochdale.
This morning at 9.30am, Lydia was required to sign in at the Home Office’s reporting centre at Dallas Court in Salford. Campaigners were worried that the Home Office would use this as an excuse to detain her, and activists attended Dallas Court to make sure Lydia was able to leave. In the event Lydia was not detained by immigration officers, but has been told she now needs to report in weekly with her husband at Dallas Court, with the threat of detention and deportation ever present. She said she was very grateful for the support shown today.
One activist, from Manchester No Borders, told MULE: “Each year the Home Office locks up tens of thousands of men, women and children migrants whose only so-called ‘crime’ is seeking a better life.
“Lydia and Bernard’s case is the tip of the iceberg, and the government’s treatment of them simply highlights the utterly arbitrary and dehumanising nature of their immigration policies.”
Campaigners are encouraging people to write to Home Secretary Alan Johnson to challenge the attempted deportation, since Cameroon is demonstrably unsafe for the pair. However, the response so far from the Home Office has been to send back the following reply:
“We have no record that Lydia Ebok Besong & Bernard Oben Batey has provided us with written confirmation that they wish you to act on their behalf.” This is apparently “a proportionate response to [protect] the privacy of the individual”.
According to Richard Goulding of RAPAR: “They’re sending the same message back to everyone regardless of what they say in their letter so that they can ignore campaign emails. The best thing to do is to write back pointing out that you have not asked for information about the case but that you are supporting Lydia and Bernard’s application to stay and that you want the message passed onto Alan Johnson asap.”
Further information on the campaign can be found here. For regular updates and to show support for Lydia and Bernard join the Facebook group. MULE will be keeping up to date with news on Lydia and Bernard’s situation.
At 6:45pm on Monday 23 November OPENMEDIA are showing the short film “Still Life” in the University of Manchester Student Union. The film directed by a friend of Lydia’s with WAST, featuring Lydia and two other women asylum seekers in Manchester.
Andy Lockhart
More: Manchester, News
Comments
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I think it’s absolutely disgusting how the Home Office are responding to the campaign (let alone their immigration policy).
Claiming to be protecting the individual is particularly insulting – there is nothing “proportionate” about deporting people back to a country where they are wanted by the authorities for their political views, and where they have previously been tortured and raped.
Have to say I am in agreement with the No Borders people here – free movement for all.
Comment by Free Movement for All on November 20, 2009 at 6:38 pm -
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