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Liverpool, A MERSEYSIDE woman last night vowed
to go to Iraq to bring her deported husband home.
Senior staff nurse Amanda Kadir, 43, accused the
Government of putting asylum seeker Zardasht's life
at risk by sending him back to his home land.
Now she believes she must go to the war-torn country
if she is ever to see him again.
Speaking at a news conference to launch Brides
Without Borders (BWB), a campaign fighting for the
rights of British wives of asylum seekers, Mrs Kadir
said: "It doesn't look as if I will get him back.
"He is waiting to be interviewed for his visa to
return to Britain, but it doesn't look hopeful.
"I am going to my solicitor to see what I can do,
but I think the only chance I will get to bring him
back is to travel to Iraq.
"I know it won't be safe for me to go there,
especially as a white British woman. But I just
don't think I have any other option if I want to be
with my husband."
The Home Office sent Mr Kadir, originally from
Kurdistan, to Jordan last week to obtain a British
visa. Once he has applied, he must travel to Iraq to
wait while the application is processed.
The couple have used money from their savings to pay
for the £300 Home Office fee, legal bills amounting
to £500, and flights and accommodation in Jordan.
Mrs Kadir added: "When my husband got to Jordan, he
was detained for three hours by the authorities and
his passport was taken away from him. They didn't
believe him when he told them why he had come, and
they threw him out of the airport.
"Two days later, he went back to the authorities and
was put in a cell for another seven hours.
"He is now having to wait in Jordan to be
inter-viewed for his visa next Wednesday, and he is
literally moving from room to room every night at
the hotel.
"It is a very dangerous environment for him to be
in, because Kurds and Arabs don't get on after the
trouble that went on under Saddam Hussein."
Mrs Kadir, who works at Fazakerley Hospital and
lives in Walton, married Zardasht in April 2004
after the couple met on a night out in Liverpool
more than three years ago.
She added: "This whole ordeal has put us under a
great strain. I can support us both with my salary,
but my husband desperately wants to work in this
country and contribute. We just want our marriage to
be recognised.
"The Home Office has taken our savings, they have
put him at risk and I really believe they have set
us up to fail.
"They are exploiting people and they are splitting
up families. You find yourself in a web and there's
no way out. They won't help you or acknowledge your
letters, and they won't even speak to you about it."
grahamdavies@dailypost.co.uk
Women campaign against 'utterly cavalier' Home
Office, with backing from MPs and the Bishop of
Liverpool
YESTERDAY'S press conference included a message of
support from the Bishop of Liverpool.
The Rt Rev James Jones sent a letter stating he had
approached Home Office ministers and was seeking
support from bishops and vicars around the UK.
In the message, read out at the conference, he said:
"In the current climate in the UK that highlights
the need for greater understanding between the
different faiths and cultures of people within the
UK, these inter-cultural marriages are an example of
that understanding being lived out."
The conference was the first public meeting of
Brides Without Borders, which is staging a protest
at Westminster on Monday.
Couples will dress in their wedding outfits to
highlight their plight on Monday, when MPs return
from the summer break.
The group now consists of 40 couples. It wants the
Government to recognise their rights to family life
under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human
Rights.
Messages were also sent from Merseyside MPs Bob
Wareing and Louise Ellman.
Mr Wareing said: "I have in fact already written to
the Home Office minister Tony McNulty MP, but
everything seems to be referred to the Immigration
and Nationality Directorate.
"These people appear to be bureaucrats who lack both
intelligence and compassion, but I'll certainly
endeavour to take what action I can to have this
policy seriously reviewed."
Concerns were raised about the inefficiency of the
Home Office, with some BWB members complaining
documents, including marriage certificates, had been
lost.
Dee Coombes, asylum seeker and refugee adviser at
Anfield's Citizens Advice Bureau, told the
conference: "The Home Office is being utterly
cavalier about people's lives and documents. I swear
they just take their documents from them and chuck
them in the bin.
"When we talk about failed asylum seekers we are
talking about people who have been failed generally.
They may have seen their whole families murdered, so
if they are able to come here and find someone who
loves them and have children, it is a way if
survival. It is torture in itself to take that away
from people."
Senior occupational therapist Heather Bullen, 32,
was one of the women who set up the group.
After her husband, Shah Wali Mohmend, was told he
would deported to his home country, Afghanistan, the
Home Office told Ms Bullen she could follow him,
despite Foreign Office guidance that Britons should
not travel there.
Ms Bullen said yesterday: "Everybody here is
suffering from an unnecessary amount of stress.
"When you are in such a bureaucratic system where
you feel you have no control. At least we can get
support from realising there are others in the same
situation."
A Home Office spokesman said: "A decision to remove
a person from the UK will only be taken where, after
careful consideration, their application for asylum
and any other representations have been refused.
"In reaching such a decision, due regard will have
been given to the UK's obligations under both the
1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees
and the Human Rights Act 1998.
"It is only once any appeal rights are exhausted
that the UK Immigration Service would pursue removal
action.
"It is important for the integrity of our asylum
system that any individual who is found not to be in
need of international protection should be expected
to leave the UK.
"Voluntary returns are preferable to enforced
returns, but if people do not leave voluntarily, we
will enforce their return.
"The Immigration Service would certainly not seek to
remove a person to a country where it was accepted
that he or she would face persecution."
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk
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