Join the Campaign to Keep Teenage Asylum Seekers in the UK
Please see the urgent message below from the Easton Cowboys Cricket Club:
I am writing to you to make you aware of my concern for a young brother and sister who will be left on the streets of Pakistan with no money, nowhere to stay, nobody to turn to, and under a real threat of severe persecution.
- What if, today, your 18 year old child was taken away from your family and imprisoned by the government....
- What if, they were forcibly taken and flown to a country where they had no family...
- What if, when they arrived, they had nowhere to go, knew no-one, had no money or means to survive, and were at risk of kidnap, torture and murder.....
The Easton Cowboys Cricket Club are campaigning for Ahad and Anum Rivzi to be released from their respective Immigration Removal Centres and for the whole family to be granted asylum.
Ahad and Anum have no family in Pakistan.
The cricket club have raised 600 paper signatures and over 1100 electronic signatures petitioning the Home Secretary to release Ahad (19y) and Anum (20y) from detention, so that they can be with the rest of their family in Bristol.
What appears to be some poor legal advice and support has contributed to failed asylum claims for Ahad, for Anum and for their parents and 4 younger siblings. Only Ahad and Anum are detained, presumably because it is believed they might abscond (despite their being detained at one of their weekly and never-missed reports to a local police station).
The whole family entered the UK legally, and their asylum claim was submitted when information from Pakistan made it clear that they were at grave risk if they returned. The severe persecution experienced by their community, family and neighbours is based on their (minority) Shi’a faith. Whilst in the UK Ahad and his mother have had formal complaints of blasphemy made against them in Pakistan. Members of their extended family have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered.
More details and particulars can be found here, including links to local media coverage (BBC TV/BBC Radio/Bristol Post) http://eastoncowboys.org.uk/support-ahad-and-anum-rizvi/
Our on-line petition is here
If you use twitter then please could you spread the hashtag #freeahandandanum and also the link to the e-petition http://tinyurl.com/m8q3dvr