24.10.1996

Asylum for freedom fighters

Since the passing into law of the Asylum Bill a pattern is emerging of the Tories attempting to speed up the deportation process of those refugees who are political activists. Like most western European governments the Tories are preparing for an onslaught on all asylum seekers and believe that, to facilitate this, they must first remove any refugees who would lead the opposition to their actions.

The appeals against refusal of asylum rights of three leading members of the African Liberation Support Campaign (Alisc) come before the immigration adjudicator soon. All three are political activists - fighters for human rights and socialists.

Julie Affiong Southey’s case is being heard on December 10 1996. She fled Nigeria in 1991 when the army was hounding her and other leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students. Many of her colleagues had been arrested and incarcerated in maximum security prisons because of their involvement in the movement of Nigerian workers against the ‘structural adjustment programmes’ of the World Bank, which were impoverishing sections of the Nigerian people.

Since coming to Britain Affiong has worked tirelessly to expose the links between Abacha’s brutal regime and western governments. She is a founder member of People’s Embargo for Democracy in Nigeria (Peden) and the Campaign for Independent Unionism (CIU). Britain continues to send a flow of arms to Abacha, regardless of the war on the Ogoni people. This flows from the need to ensure that British companies like Shell, which plays a major part in Nigeria’s economy and state repression, remain profitable. It is precisely because Affiong Southey and her comrades have led the fight against the corrupt role of British governments and big business in maintaining the bloody junta, that the British government wants to deport her.

Kwame Sampong is from Ghana. Since coming to Britain he has played a leading role in Alisc’s activities - particularly the campaign to expose the links between the British government and Rawling’s repressive regime in Ghana.

Esther Lehou’s appeal is being heard in early 1997. She is from the Ivory Coast, where she was a leader in Fesci, the students’ union. The Ivorian state’s history of repression against the students has included a raid by the army on a campus, when students were killed. Before she escaped to Britain, Esther was arrested and held without charge or trial. She was beaten and injected with drugs in an attempt to force her to give names of people she worked with. After her release her mother was harassed by armed soldiers and Esther was again arrested and threatened with an ‘accident’ if she did not supply information.

The Pan Afrikan Freedom Fighters Asylum Campaign (Paffac) has been started to stop the deportation of her and the other political activists. If they are deported, it will mean imprisonment and possibly death. The campaign needs to win wide support among refugee groups, community groups and the trade union and labour movement.

Koti Klu, Paffac