Amnesty International Leicester: If deported to Zim, Evenia Mawongera 'is in danger'

Today (Friday, 9 August), Leicester grandmother, Evenia Mawongera will, again, be reporting at the Loughborough Immigration Reporting Centre. This will be the third time, in as many weeks, that she has had to report at the centre.

She reports at the centre weekly because that is part of the conditions that were imposed on her by the UK Border Agency when they released her from Yarl's Wood Immigration Detention Centre where they had been holding because they had wanted to deport her to Zimbabwe.

Evenia's children and grandchildren are British citizens. Last week, Evenia wrote to the manager at Loughborough Immigration Reporting Centre and asked that her reporting conditions be changed from weekly to once every three months. She made this request because she looks after her grandchildren while her daughters are at work. Reporting weekly interferes with this duty.

Evenia is still to receive a response from the UK Border Agency on this request.

Today, as has been happening each time Evenia has had to report at the centre, her friends will accompany her to the reporting centre and they will present a petition to the centre's manager for the manager to pass on to Home Secretary Theresa May and Immigration Minister Mark Harper. The signatures supporting the petition are from the people of Leicester.

In the petition, the people of Leicester are asking the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister to exercise their discretionary powers and allow Evenia to stay in Leicester with her friends, her children and her grandchildren.

A similar petition is also active online and through it, people from all over Britain, are asking the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister to let Evenia stay.

This week, the cover letter accompanying the petition that Evenia's friends will be presenting to the manager at Loughborough Immigration Reporting Centre comes from Amnesty International Leicester secretary, Jonathan Ure, who writes:   

"We write to ask you to forward the enclosed petition and the 247 signatures supporting it to Home Secretary Theresa May and to Immigration Minister Mark Harper. This set of signatures, taken together with the ones that were presented to you last week and the ones that were presented to you the week before that, means that 1,719 people from Leicester are all asking that Evenia be allowed to stay.

"A further 994 people from all over the country, through a similar, online petition, are also asking that Evenia be allowed to stay ("Petitioning Theresa May MP: "Evenia Must Stay!").

"Taking these two figures together means that  2,713 people are asking the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister to exercise their discretion and allow Evenia to stay.

"We are petitioning the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister to grant Evenia Mawongera, currently residing in Leicester, permanent leave to remain in this country for three reasons:

"Firstly, she is in danger of having her human rights infringed if she were to be sent to Zimbabwe.  The specific rights which are endangered include the right to life, liberty and security of person; equal protection of the law; to asylum from persecution; to family; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; to freedom of expression and to be governed by a state representative of the will of the people.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of her rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but is merely representative of the specific rights denied citizens of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, other rights in addition to these are infringed by the current State of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.  No citizen in Zimbabwe has these human rights defended in law, though some receive preferential treatment due to political, financial and other allegiances.  Ms Mawongera does not have such advantages.

"Secondly, she has no family or other connections in Zimbabwe, her husband having died some years ago and her child and grandchildren living as British citizens here in the UK.  Her family life is here, her family and herself are fully integrated into British society.  To send Ms Mawongera to Zimbabwe would deprive herself and her family of family life - both a moral and legal fact which cannot be dismissed.

"Thirdly, she is an upstanding and integrated member of society in Leicester who celebrates British life and the society in which she lives.  She is due to receive the Good Neighbour Award from the Leicester Mercury on 22nd August 2013 for her work in the community, she celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, performing with the Zimbabwe Choir in the summer of 2012 and she is heavily involved with other Church and community work with the people of Leicester.  Should she be sent to Zimbabwe Leicester would lose a valuable member of its community who wants to continue to contribute to British society.

"In addition to the above, Her Majesty's Government's own position on the governance of Zimbabwe is damning in itself.  The most recent update to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) report on the Human Rights situation in Zimbabwe1 draws attention to increased harassment and intimidation in the lead up to the elections of 31st July 2013 leading to serious curtailment of the rights of all people in Zimbabwe.  Further, the recommendation of the FCO to travellers to Zimbabwe includes advice against, for example, waving, as it may be interpreted as being supportive of the political opposition and advises against "...political activity, or activities which could be construed as such, including political discussions in public places..." (accessible here). Since the result of the elections was declared our own government has commented on the intimidation, persecution and non-representative nature of the process and has condemned the election as non-democratic.

"All of the above lends overwhelming weight to the argument that Evenia Mawongera should be granted indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom and/or refuge. She should be given the opportunity to continue to contribute to our society."