After the death of Jimmy Mubenga on a forced deportation flight to Angola at the hands of G4S, many said ‘never again’ but nothing has changed: it is happening again in slow motion to Isa Muazu.
There have been 19 deaths in immigration detention centres in the UK over the last 25 years. Many more are believed to have died in war or from torture and persecution after they were forced to return into the hands of their persecutors after being refused asylum in the UK.
Isa was locked up on the same day that he claimed asylum, and his asylum claim was refused with no right to appeal in the UK, despite his reports that he and his family have been persecuted by militants, the Boko Haram. He has been on hunger strike for over 100 days and on Friday endured a forced deportation attempt on a private jet, despite being declared too ill to fly by independent doctors. The flight was forced to turn around and Isa is now again locked up in a high-security, prison-like immigration detention centre.
Isa is one of thousands of men, women and children incarcerated in immigration detention centres around the UK. The UK is one of the few countries in the world that has no time limit on the length of time a migrant can be detained. Given this and the high death rate, it is not surprising that immigration detention is being dubbed by campaigners as the ‘UK’s death row’.
Isa’s case is a precedent setting moment in which the Home Office have failed to listen to pleas of mercy, justice, independent medical experts and legal arguments in order to prove they are tough on immigrants to win political points. In flexing their muscles, they have shown how truly cruel and inhumane this government is.
We call on Theresa May to release Isa Muazu today and find alternatives to the indefinite detention of migrants in high security immigration detention centres.
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Contacts:
Lucy Ellinson
07946 537 839