SUPPORT LYDIA BESONG

WAST HUMAN RIGHTS DETAINED

LATEST NEWS: 18/12/09 - The High Court have today ordered Lydia Besong should not be removed.

Lydia Besong was detained on Thursday10th December, when she went to report at Dallas Court Reporting Centre, Salford. The Home Office is planning to deport her within 11 days. She is presently detained at Yarls Wood detention Centre in Bedford, South of England. Prior to her attempted removal which is for the 21^st of December 2009 via Kenya Airways, Paul Rowen MP (their member of Parliament) has been contacted. He is working with Lydia's lawyer to secure her release.

On Thursday night, 29^th October 2009, Lydia and her husband Bernard returned to their home in Rochdale after a busy day to find a letter from the Border and Immigration Agency telling them that they must go back to Cameroon, the country they fled from late at night on 17th of December 2006. Because they were members of the Southern Cameroon National Council, an organization fighting for the freedom and the liberation of Southern Cameroon, Lydia and Bernard were tortured and imprisoned - Lydia was raped by one of the guards.

Her debut play “How I Became an Asylum Seeker”, produced and performed by WAST (Woman Asylum Seekers Together) and CAN (Community Arts North West), was staged before an audience of about 230 people at the Zion Theatre in Manchester on 3^rd December 2009. The play, the story of a woman seeking asylum in UK, aims to raise awareness on the struggles women are facing with the immigration system.

As a member of WAST since 2007, Lydia has been helping other women with anti-deportation campaigns, and provided general support. She has also been active and spoken out in many workshops organised by WAST. She is also an active member of her catholic church in Rochdale for the last two years and is also a member of the church council.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

1) Email/Fax/phone, Sam Okwulehie, Group Area Manager Kenya Airways and urge him not to carry out the forced removal of Lydia Ebok Besong -please quote, Lydia Ebok Besong a national of Cameroon, residents of Rochdale is due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Monday 21^st December 2009 on Kenya Airways flight KQ101 from London Heathrow at 19:00 via Nairobi to Cameroon.

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tel: 020 8283 1800 then option 1, then option 4.

Fax: 020 8745 5027 - from outside the UK + 44 20 8745 5027

2) Fax Rt. Hon. Paul Rowen, MP asking that Lydia must be released quoting Lydia Ebok Besong and Bernard Oben Batey: HO Ref: B1236371. Please remember to include their HO Ref: B1236371

Tel: 01706 712 186

Fax: 01706 646 370

ONLINE SUPPORT FOR LYDIA BESONG AND BERNARD BATEY

African Writers Abroad

http://africanwritersabroad.org.uk/2009/11/besong/

Interview by Oli Wilson

http://soundcloud.com/oli-wilson/lydia-besong

Detained by Ciara Leeming

http://ciaraleeming.blogspot.com/2009/12/detained.html

Help Stop the Deportation of Bernard Batey and Lydia Besong

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=share&gid=331358295337

English Pen