Berminie Carine Lili, known to her friends as Lili, faces deportation with her two year old son Keiran Nana on Monday 25th January 2010. They were detained by six immigration police who demanded entry to their home in Hendon, Sunderland, in the early hours of Tuesday 12th January.
Lili comes from Cameroon. Since the 1980s the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have imposed on Cameroon privatisation of railways, agriculture, forests, communications, electricity and water, all sold off to multinational companies, leading to massive cuts in wages and deteriorating working conditions. In 2002 the entire country was made into an export processing zone, meaning multinational companies can ignore labour laws, are exempt from paying tax for ten years, receive cut-price electricity and other services, and can take 100% of profits back to the imperialist countries where the multinationals are based. The building of a massive oil pipeline through Cameroon by Chevron and ExxonMobil to plunder the oil of neighbouring Chad, begun in 2000, has forced whole communities off their land. Public services have been slashed, as Cameroon is forced to spend more servicing its international debts than on health and education combined. Under the control of multinationals agriculture has been diverted to exports, leading to rising food prices within the country, forcing millions into food insecurity. When people have fought back the state has imprisoned, shot and disappeared activists, with a police and army trained by France and receiving military aid from the US.*
When Lili was offered a ‘good job’ in France she took the opportunity. Tragically, she was tricked, trafficked, and on arrival in France in June 2006 forced into prostitution, and escaped to Britain in August the same year. Lili has been deeply traumatised by this experience, and is receiving medication for depression. With her new son she has been struggling to rebuild her life in Sunderland, and they have formed strong links and many friends in the local community, including volunteering with the Red Cross. Lili’s family in Cameroon have said they will have nothing to do with her because of the shame of being a trafficked person. In August 2006 her father made threats to her life if she ever returns to Cameroon, and she says she would not feel safe wherever she went in the country. Despite claims by the British Home Office to be committed to tackling the trafficking of women for sex without penalising its victims, since claiming asylum in Britain Lili has not had a thorough medical or psychological assessment by medical staff experienced in dealing with victims of sexual violence.
Lili is a member of TCAR (Tyneside Community Action for Refugees), a political alliance initiated by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! in 2006 to stand together against deportations and all forms of racism. Since learning of the family’s detention TCAR has been mobilising together with the Cameroonian organisation ANEESCam, calling on Home Secretary Alan Johnson to halt the deportation and on Easyjet to refuse to participate in the deportation. The office of Lili’s MP Chris Mullin, who has previously claimed to have great concern for asylum seekers, have refused to help the family. On Friday 15th January members of TCAR, ANNESCam and Tyneside Socialist Forum protested outside Government Offices North East. On previous occasions when Home Office Representatives have refused to speak to demonstrators TCAR members have occupied the lobby of the government building until they were seen. Today a senior UK Borders Agency civil servant came out to meet protestors almost immediately and accepted their petitions.
We will not give up the fight. Lili is a victim of imperialism – leaving her home in search of work after her country was raped by multinationals; finding herself trapped, exploited and with no rights in an imperialist country; fleeing to Britain seeking refuge only to be terrorised, imprisoned and threatened with deportation.
—
What you can do to help Lili and Keiran stay in Britain:
1.) Email/Phone/Message Easyjet, and urge them not to carry out the forced removal of Berminie Carine Lili – download a model fax/email from http://ow.ly/WGHN or http://bit.ly/7tdwNf or you can copy, amend or write your own version – please quote EasyJet flight U22431 on Monday 25 January 06:05, from London/Luton to Paris for onward transit to Cameroon
Andy Harrison Chief Executive Officer EasyJet
email: [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 0158 244 3330
Fax: 0158 244 3355
2.) Please send urgent Email/faxes immediately to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for the Home Office asking him to urgently review the case, cancel the deportation, and release Lili and Keiran from detention. You can use the “model letter” at http://ow.ly/WGE2 or http://bit.ly/8gOnDJ or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include HO ref: L1142369)
Fax: 020 8760 3132
Email: [email protected].
[email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Privateoffice.external@
3.) Join TCAR and fight all deportations!
Open Air Speak Out Against Racism: Saturday 30th January, 12pm, Monument, Newcastle
—
TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER!
TOGETHER WE CAN WIN!
–
TCAR – Tyneside Community Action for Refugees
*The information on Cameroon reported here was taken from an article published in September 2009 by the International Labour Research and Information Group at: http://www.ilrigsa.org.za/
