Breastfeeding mother forcibly separated from her baby.....again ;-(

[shonaspurtle]

This country is a disgrace

She was found sleeping rough with depression so they chucked her kids into care and stuck her in a detention centre. But it's ok because she's a failed asylum seeker.

[morgangee]

Yes, totally frustrating.

Must be very annoying when we write to Governments and challenge them as well - how annoying to have to talk to people.

Somewhat like the idea that hospitals would run better without patients and schools would be so much better without them pesky kids.

The UK Immigration service - slowed down and inconvienced by all those annoying people asking for due legal process!

[cazee]

I know, I really can't understand why Janiphur is delaying her return to a life of destitution and homelessness on the streets of war torn Uganda. I mean, some people are so fussy.

[Nightynight]

Its quite worrying really, that Liam Byrne seems to assume that legal appeal merely drags out the deportation process. Not that it might be successful. does he know something that we dont, are these things fixed beforehand?

[morgangee]

I know! Picky picky picky!

No matter what you do for some people they always want more. Give them water, they want food! Give them food they want clothes! Give them clothes, they want a roof over their head!

And then they want an education! I ask you!

It's all take take take. Honestly. You have to draw the line somewhere.

bang bang bang There, that's better... what was I saying...?

[fillyjonk]

its appalling

but not because she is a bfding mother so much

because she is a MOTHER who is being separated from her very young children. I don't that much care if she ff or bfs, the fact of the separation is just

and also because we have bloody appallingly harsh laws on asylum in this country. its a sodding joke. representing asylum seekers is profoundly depressing, you are having to tell people who have been raped repeatedly, who have seen their kids/partners murdered or taken away, that actually, their case for asylum is a bit weak because of a technicality, like the country they are from. This government is just blatantly ignoring the Geneva convention and so many of us, in our comfortable houses with our nice tvs and sofas and cheap food (and where do you think THAT comes from?) think we have some right to stand on judgement on WHICH of our fellow humans have the right to be let into "our" country, and thus have the utter luxury that WE take for granted of bringing up their kids free from poverty and fear.

god it makes me

but THAT is why it happens. Because asylum seekers are vote-winners for politicians out for the mondeo-driving classes, the daily mail readers, the nimbyists who nevertheless don't mind their cheap tvs and clothing

oh yes, we are fairly falling off this island



it happens because most of us do NOTHING about it. becuase we have all let it get to the riduculous point where asylum seeker doesn't equal terrified person fleeing from fear but someone who, bizarely, must want more than anything to live on the top floor of a high rise flat

[SummertimeBluesuedeShoes]

I have just picked up on this thread and thank God that Janipher is OK at the moment. Apart from e mailing (which I will do ASAP) is there anything else we can do?

How can we help here get leave to remain - the laws are barbaric if she can stay as a minor only to get chucked out when 18

Does she have to stay in London or can she come elsewhere?

[morgangee]

She has to go where the Home Office approve -and at the moment, that has to be all taken care of by Hillingdon Social Services - the people who threw her onto the streets! But I'm sure that they will try this time, to follow the correct laws and proceedures....

Rest assured, if they don't, I will let everyone know!

Until we know where she's going to be settled, in the medium term (she's in emergency hostel accomodation this weekend) we won't know what she needs. You can send me a donation for her - email me for my address. [email protected]

You can also go to www.nursingmatters.org.uk and volunteer to help others as well as Janipher.

You'll laugh! Janipher keeps saying she's going to write a personal thank you letter to everyone who's helped! We keep saying "Oh no you won't!"

Not without spending a year writing letters, at least!

[Astrophe]

This is shocking. Hvae just emailed everyone on bionicley's list, and the PM. Outrageous, and a national disgrace

[Sakura]

I did LOL at the fussy/frustrated/picky picky posts.
I thought another poster made a really good comment below that I hadn`t thought of: that people are born into rich countries through pure luck. Through nothing they have done to deserve it themselves. And they act as though they are somehow superior to others who were born into rubbish countries . They have an underserved sense of entitlement. Surely before any nationality (a man-made concept anyway), we are first and foremost human beings? Or at least mothers?

Its so good that she is out and her little girl can run around. I was thinking about how I have DD (8 months) and about how going out with her once a day to the park is what keeps my sanity.

[Sakura]

And exactly fillyjonk. Almost all the food products on our supermarket shelves comes from African countries,South America and Asia. If they were grown in the EU, the prices would be so so much more expensive- well basically the EU isnT sustainable food-wise. I mean without the "poorer" countries land, soil and water, we wouldnt be able to eat. So its the backbreaking labour of people in countries like Uganda that enable us to enjoy our lifestyle and consumer goods. We are <span class="italic">so</span> much more dependant on them. Without them, we would be in big trouble. WIthout us, theyd be a lot better off.

[fillyjonk]

and you all know that, while the breastfeeding side may be unusual and a bit shocking (and I am an extended bfder myself, I am hardly blase about nestle and the rest)-this treatment of families, of mothers with young children, is hardly unusual. Its happening all the time.

And that before we start talking about the appalling way that asylum seekers are meant to live-on, IIRC, around 2/3 of normal basic benefits, and with the stigma of vouchers. It is far from uncommon for mothers to go hungry so their kids can eat. And if they become destitute the laws in place are inadequate-I can't remember EXACTLY what (years since i did this) but it USED to be the case I think that even children had no recourse to emergency social services (= food, shelter etc).

And all because they want a life free of rape and torture. GOD how unreasonable is that, eh?

[Sakura]

If I start thinking about all the mothers in the UK who need help, Ill just fizzle up and explode, so my brain is limited to just this one person. <br /> The institutions and (lets be honest, masculine) system that we are up against is so incredibly strong, that the only thing I feel is helpless. So I think if <span class="italic">one</span> womans fate can be altered, then in some small way, things are better.

[morgangee]

I do think that's a wonderful way of looking at it. And we have already altered Janipher's fate for the better. We need to make her a good future, and then all the others will benefit form the knock effect of that!

But really, it isn't Janipher's fate we are changing: it's the babies' future we have to protect.

[morgangee]

.

[franch]

You're right, Sakura. Having said that though, I've been thinking hard about how common this kind of treatment obviously is - and the fact that those concerned consider it appropriate to treat other human beings this way. If middle-class white people were being sh*t on like this, don't you think there would be a major outcry, a public inquiry? Heads would roll, changes to the system would be implemented.

I have no experience of campaigning or politics but as we have clearly built up some momentum here (there is more consensus on this thread than I've seen for a while on MN ), I strongly feel we should harness it in order to actually effect some change on a bigger scale.

Am I being naive? Or is there something more we can do to prevent more and more stories like this from happening - most of which we'll probably never even get to hear about?

Is one of the organisations involved with helping Ms Maseko already doing something in this direction? Can we add our weight to theirs?

[morgangee]

When I have a moment - I'll find out who is doing what, and where the best place to go to help is.

In terms of Yarl's Wood, and the women already trapped there, I suspect it's Intercross Women's Centre and BWRAP.

www.womenagainstrape.net/

But, as I said, I'll get back to you.

[morgangee]

www.womenagainstrape.net/SelfHelpAsylumLeaflet.htm

[morgangee]

Does any one have, or know off, a spare double baby buggy in the Uxbridge UB8 area?

Morgan

[fillyjonk]

you can do a lot of things, tbh

good luck to this woman, she is lucky her situation has been highlighted

pity the other women in the same boat who haven't been so lucky

there are lots of organisations and ways to help.

try the Refugee Council

or volunteer with a charity working with asylum seekers, or an advice centre

its a campagining issue, not so much a money raising issue. the crap asylum seekers face is political, they are a useful scapegoat.

I'm afraid I think we all have a duty to our fellow human beings. We are mainly benefiting from this system and we have a duty to speak out against it.

I don't think helping individuals IS enough, actually. I think some sort of systemic change in attitudes is needed.

I could post dozens of stories of people i have worked with who have actually as heartbreaking a story. And thats just the UK. The fact is that the scale of this problem is HUGE and it makes me so utterly, utterly angry that we are mainly complacent, or even judgemental about it, we don't like the vile underbelly of society to intrude into our nice comfy lives. Its like the sodding Matrix in many ways.

[morgangee]

I think deciding that all you personally can do, is help one individual at a time, is perfectly okay.

For we all have to work within our own boundaries.

If enough people do everything they can... things will change.

And we've called for direct political action here, and many people have responded!

Don't let the scale of the problem, crush you - you can't change everything!

But we've already changed the lives of three people who really needed it. :-)

[franch]

"Just. Fair." campaign - Refugee Council