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Original poster

To ask you to please help these 2 little girls stay in the UK, they face FGM in Nigeria

176 replies

Topaz25 · 22/04/2014 21:18

This petition really moved me, please sign and share:
www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/uk-border-agency-please-review-the-fresh-evidence-submitted-for-afusat-saliu-s-asylum-case-properly

"Afusat Saliu, faces being returned to Nigeria. She has removal directions for 25th April. If she goes back, there is a real risk of forcible FGM on her daughters. She fled to the UK when her step-mother expressed a wish to have her daughter Bassy cut. Bassy will be four in May; two year old Rashidat was born in London - Afusat fled while she was heavily pregnant.

In Afusat's village, FGM is usually performed on babies, which is when Afusat herself was cut. If she is made to return and her family catch up with her, it is likely that she will be powerless to protect them from being mutilated. Afusat is also in danger as she escaped a forced marriage to a man 40 years her senior to whom her family is indebted."

OP posts:
WooWooOwl · 22/04/2014 23:16

Do you seriously think that you do not have enough facts to justify supporting even that much?

Not from what's on the thread or the first link, no. How do I know whether the new evidence adds anything to the case? It might, but it might not. Cases would never be dealt with if they could be reopened automatically on what might be flimsy evidence, and there aren't the resources to keep every case open indefinitely just in case something else crops up.

livingatheendofthewall · 22/04/2014 23:30

Signed. Those who haven't have obviously not clicked on the link. How could you see those two tiny innocent girls and not sign???

gordyslovesheep · 22/04/2014 23:33

this

To ask you to please help these 2 little girls stay in the UK, they face FGM in Nigeria
lionheart · 22/04/2014 23:43

Signed, of course.

FloozeyLoozey · 22/04/2014 23:47

Aren't people supposed to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach? Geographically it can't have been britain, so why are they here and why have they become our responsibility and not another country's?

gordyslovesheep · 22/04/2014 23:51

maybe because Nigeria was once a British colonial country ...so they identify with Britain and feel safe here

still lets let that issue cloud the possible maiming or death of two small children Hmm

ThingsThatShine · 22/04/2014 23:59

Signed

Good luck to them

Nennypops · 23/04/2014 00:01

Aren't people supposed to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach?

Not that old chestnut. That's a doctrine that comes from the days before aeroplanes were invented, and it's a misconception. Asylum seekers tend to get out by whatever means they can, and if they can get on a plane it tends to be the case that the pilot sort of insists on carrying on to the plane's destination.

Nennypops · 23/04/2014 00:05

How do I know whether the new evidence adds anything to the case? It might, but it might not. Cases would never be dealt with if they could be reopened automatically on what might be flimsy evidence, and there aren't the resources to keep every case open indefinitely just in case something else crops up.

What does it matter whether you know? The petition simply asks the Home Office to look at it again. On the one hand, you have two little girls at known risk of major mutilation; on the other, we have Home Office officials at risk of spending a couple more hours considering their case. Isn't it a no-brainer?

The petition doesn't ask that the case be reopened "automatically", nor that it be kept open indefinitely just in case something else crops up.

If you don't want to sign, don't, but these excuses are sounding just a bit desperate.

thebodydoestricks · 23/04/2014 00:12

Signed of course.

Redhead4 · 23/04/2014 00:16

I won't be signing.

There is more to it and we don't know the reasons why she has been given until the 25th to return.

Are we going to advertise Britain as a 'safe place' for all girls who face FGM?!

gordyslovesheep · 23/04/2014 00:20

Are we going to advertise Britain as a 'safe place' for all girls who face FGM

why not? wouldn't that be something to be proud of?

Nennypops · 23/04/2014 00:21

Are we going to advertise Britain as a 'safe place' for all girls who face FGM?!

Fine by me.

Extrapolating again: back in the 1930s there were certain charmers who were outraged at the fact that we were advertising Britain as a 'safe place' for German Jews. Should we take it that you would have agreed with them?

bochead · 23/04/2014 00:57

We should advertise Britain as a safe place for all girls who face FGM - do you understand just how heinous a crime it is?

I find it truly shocking that we, who employ lunch box police while at the same time being content to allow innocent children that are here, today on our soil, to be maimed in this manner.

For me it makes a complete & total mockery of our child protection system. If we will not take a stand to prevent this practice when we are given the opportunity to do so on a platter; than we may as well close every SS office and family court in the nation and save the tax payer a fortune in the process!

As for human rights, we are proving that we believe these poor babies to be subhuman and therefore not worthy of any human rights. These are not economic migrants, they are fleeing persecution of the worst kind, and refugees in the most fundamental sense.

Evil is only possible if the good stand back and do nothing and this is a truly evil practice. I would hope and pray with everything I have, that should my own niece or grand daughter be faced with such horror, someone somewhere would show some compassion for her plight.

gingerchick · 23/04/2014 01:18

Signed without a moments hesitation

Tenrec · 23/04/2014 01:25

Signed. I've worked with a teen who underwent FGM as a younger child. You can't save everyone, but two children who are saved from mutilation is good enough for me.

MamaMumra · 23/04/2014 01:44

Signed. Thanks for the post and link OP.

HicDraconis · 23/04/2014 05:01

Signed. It reads as though some of the evidence for her asylum application was possibly overlooked. It will do no harm at all for the application to be re-looked at, taking into account the points the petition raises.

No, we can't offer every at-risk person a home in the UK. But we can try to make a difference to some!

oohdaddypig · 23/04/2014 05:15

Signed, of course.

We can't save the whole world from FGM, or torture, or anything else. But by signing the petition we are, rightly, equating FGM to the other physical harms that prevent asylum seekers being deported.

Of course this is a drop in the ocean for all the children facing FGM but the alternative is for us to turn our backs altogether.

We can't save the works but we can make a little bit of a difference every day.

StealthPolarBear · 23/04/2014 05:44

signed
"Are we going to advertise Britain as a 'safe place' for all girls who face FGM?!"
That would be lovely :)
I'd love such a message to go out. Unfortunately we are only at the stage of starting to prevent FGM on our own citizens.

Hairylegs47 · 23/04/2014 06:18

I'm with this guy
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
? Edmund Burke

Signed

cheekygeeky · 23/04/2014 06:31

Signed. Just can't believe people are not signing. You could make a difference to these girls lives.

tinypumpkin · 23/04/2014 06:36

Signed. My children are that age, just how is this acceptable in any country at any age? I truly hope this gets looked at and publicity helps.

tinypumpkin · 23/04/2014 06:38

Totally agree with your quotes Hairylegs, I will remember those. Sometimes it is hard when you can do so little but as you say, everything matters.

Jesuisunepapillon · 23/04/2014 07:17

Signed. Anything to prevent two little girls going through that. Most importantly, by signing you are showing the wider world that FGM won't be ignored any more, won't be tolerated, is something that is being talked about and which matters. Even if you don't care about this woman, show those who have been through this and who reside in England that we are listening and working to help future generations.