IMAGINE LIVING and working in Britain for over 20 years. Then Imagine visiting another country for a couple of years. When you return to your country after this short break in residency you are welcomed back by being thrown in jall with the threat of deportation.
Sounds ludicrous desn't it? Well it is the harsh reality of the goverment's racist policies which has faced Abdul and Ade Onibyo, currently detained in Campsfield Detention centre.
What makes this particular example of victimization particularty ridicalous is that Abdul Onibyo actually visited Nigeria for two years over 11 years ago. Belore and after this visit, for 22 years, Abdul has lived and worked in this country as a council worker In Lambeth. He also brought up his tamily, including his son Ade, in this country. Yet in tii o r Hon du HoTs are telling both Abdul and Ade that they are no longer entitled to residency in BritIn March 1995, without warning, Abdul and Ade were arrested and imprisoned in the Harmondsworth Detention Centre in West London. As with Campsfield this centre is run by Group 4 security on behalf of the Home Office. Behind the barbed wire on the Great forced to take his A levels. Abdul, in common with many detainees at the centre, was he was thrown into Harmendsworh. desoite beino beaten up in a police cell just beforehand. Paul Condon's police service have lett Abdul Onibyo with no feeling in his left arm.
Cruelty
To add to this cruelty is the ebb and fiow of hope and despair that has been experienced when Abdul and Ade were temporarily released before being re-jalled by the authorities first in Stanstead and now in Campstleld. The rest of the Onibyo family are devastated by this horrendous treatment.
It is clear that the immigration authorities have targetted the Onibyos as part of a racist crackdown on supposed 'illegal imigrants". But there is nothing illegal about wanting to live and work alongside your friends and family. There is nothing Illegal about deciding to visit other countries and to decide stay there. Uness of counte you happen to be black and this is where the goverment is seen to be thoroughly racIst in its practise. The crime of this injustice, and the many other examples of racial victimization that go on daily, should not themselves go unpunished. • Protest to Michael Howard. get involved with the campaigns against detentions and deportations and give support to the Onibyo Family Anti-Deportation Campaign which can be contacted at Lambeth UNISON on 0171-738-3209. FIGHTING RACISM