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Up to
100 members of the local Kurdish community blocked
Burngreave Avenue and surrounded the house where the
20-year-old asylum seeker lies in agony after sewing
his lips together a month ago.
It took the ambulance crew more than an hour to
reach Naseh on Saturday night, but he still refused
treatment.
"He's barely alive now but the Government is still
ignoring him," said bus driver Aras Mohammed, aged
34.
"This was a spontaneous and peaceful uproar, but we
felt we had to show our anger.
"I don't know Naseh personally but he's still a
human being and I feel sorry for him. There is
something badly wrong with the British Asylum system
because I'm also from Iraq and I was granted asylum,
so why wasn't he?"
Police confirmed protesters blocked the road, but
said the demo ended peacefully.
Earlier in the day a group of protesters from the
Sheffield Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers
gathered at Chatsworth House to demand action from
David Blunkett.
The Home Secretary was in Derbyshire to open a new
Sensory Garden at the stately home, but was instead
greeted with banners asking whether he could smell
the scent of death.
"We wanted to present Mr Blunkett with an open
letter asking why he is enjoying the smell of
flowers when Naseh lies dying," said spokesman Alan
Kenny. "Naseh is in a very serious condition now and
he's close to death - but the Home Secretary is
refusing to even acknowledge his existence.
"In an article in The Star earlier last week he said
that the asylum system would have failed if he bowed
to the refugee's strike, but we believe that it's
actually the system that has failed Naseh."
Police took photographs of the Chatsworth
demonstrators.
The young Kurd stitched his lips together 32 days
ago after his claim for asylum was rejected.
Naseh says his father and brother were murdered at
the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime and his mother
and sister have disappeared.
Despite the change in the Iraqi government, he
believes that if he returns to Iraq he will be
killed, too.
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