Great News! Hussein's Removal Directions for tomorrow have been cancelled!

Yesterday his solicitor's made a last minute change of tactic and lodged a judicial review, instead of an injunction, paid for with the money you all donated. At lunchtime today his MP's office called and told us that the removal directions are cancelled. Hussein is not being deported tomorrow. Thank you all so much for being part of this success.

But Hussein is not safe yet! 

This campaign has stopped tomorrow's deportation, but the Home Office want to deport people Italy at the moment, so now we need to win the right for Hussein to have his asylum claim dealt with here in the UK. If we achieve this, it will have a positive impact for many other people like Hussein who came to the UK via Italy to claim asylum and be safe.

We have been learning more about the situation in Italy. Due to the recent conflicts in North Africa many people have been fleeing to Southern Europe, in Italy the asylum system is collapsing under the strain. The Italian government has been calling for a change to rules which oblige asylum seekers to remain in the country in which they first arrive.

There have been a variety of challenges to deportations to Italy, for example in the High Court last weekend and a significant pending case Tarakhel v Switzerland in the European Court of Human Rights.  However, the UK government want to continue deportations rather than recognise the serious risks to the lives of people seeking asylum in Italy, 

This is a quote from a report from the Swiss Refugee Council about the system in Italy 

The Italian reception system for asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection is insufficient. As a result, Italy does not comply with its international obligations. In view of this situation, member states of the Dublin Regulation that return people to Italy have a duty to investigate individual cases. If a person to be transferred risks ending up on the streets in all probability without the possibility of achieving independence, the sovereignty clause should be applied. 

Over the next few days we will decide the next steps in this campaign and hope you will continue to be part of it. 

This campaign has many parts and grown through our collective strength and our belief in justice. We have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions- shock, anger, fear, joy, amazement and many sleepless nights. Seeing everyone of your signatures being added to the petition gave us inspiration to keep organising and pushing when it looked like there was no way forward. The torrent of paypal emails in our inbox made our jaws drop. We really want to keep this momentum going forward and we will post further updates here.