Victory in orphan bid

A COUPLE will fly to Malawi next month to pick up the orphaned children they have been fighting to bring to the UK.

David and Elizabeth Lee will fly to the southern African nation on July 26 to collect their nephew and niece - Bruno Kajombo, nine, and his 11-year-old sister Stella.

The couple, of Erlanger Road, New Cross Gate, have won an asylum and immigration tribunal held at Croydon which granted the children UK visas.

This will end a battle which began just over a year ago.

Mr Lee, 45, an assistant headteacher at Horn Park Primary School, Alnwick Road, Lee, is overjoyed at the news.

He said: "We are really elated; we will be taking a nice holiday with the children when we get there and then fly them home.

"We were very surprised when we received the good news and also really relieved because we thought we were going to have to go through another step to get them.

"I am so happy for my wife. She was having a lot of trouble and was very distressed while this was going on.

"Thank you to all the readers for all the support and help you have given me throughout this ordeal."

"All I have to say is thank God for British justice."

The children's father died from Aids-related illnesses in 2003.

News Shopper has covered the Lees' campaign to get the children relocated since they were left orphaned by their mother's death.

Their mum Helen, 33 - Mrs Lee's sister - died in a car accident in May last year.

Since then the pair have been staying with relatives in Malawi and the Lees have been providing them with financial support.

Mr Lee applied for visas for the children from the immigration service at the British High Commission in Malawi in May last year.

This would allow them to move to Britain.

However, they were turned down because the authorities argued the children could be cared for by relatives in Malawi.

After reviews of this decision failed, the couple sought help from the Walthamstow branch of the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

They went to an asylum and immigration tribunal in January and were given the news it had succeeded on May 16.

Housewife Mrs Lee, 35, says the tribunal victory has changed her life.

She said: "I was very unwell when we were refused custody of the children.

"Everything seemed surreal, bec- ause I had to face the chance they would not be coming here.

"When I found out the good news I felt much better; extremely happy."

The youngsters will be granted two British visas when the Lees arrive in Africa.

It will be the first time they have seen each other in more than seven months.

They will travel to Britain in August to live with the Lees and their 12-year-old daughter Ekom and start improving their English.

Solicitor Kamla Adiseshiah, who represented the Lees at the tribunal, said: "This was the right decision. It is really fantastic and I am thrilled.

"The embassy is being helpful now. I would like to thank News Shopper for highlighting our case."

Politics with a capital P

Intelligent Giving have slated Barnado's boss Martin Narey for his forthright appeal to prevent a seven year old Malawi boy being deported with his parents - all three of them have HIV and have no hope of treatment back in Malawi.

Adam Rothwell's stance is that this is political campaigning and therefore the 'omnipresent Martin Narey' as he is described and the charity he heads should not therefore be involved.

Adam goes on to say -

"Charities are barred from being too 'political'. But increasingly it seems that what some charities - and the Charity Commission - see as 'political' bears little resemblance to what most ordinary people would think."

I don't think so.

Of course as we often hear politics is a grey area but as one of those ordinary people I feel Barnado's has every right to campaign on behalf of vulnerable children in the UK. If that means questioning a deportation order placed on a young seven year old boy with HIV then I'm comfortable that they are keeping within their charitable boundaries.

If not Barnados then who will?

Posted by Gareth Jenkins at 8:07 AM

Barnardo's: Update on boy facing deportation to Malawi

Thursday, 05 Apr 2007 16:08

The barrister representing Dumisani Lungu, a seven-year-old boy who was due to be deported to Malawi on 3rd April to face the prospect of dying alone after watching his sick parents die first, has won a restraining order and the family now cannot be removed pending full consideration of the application for judicial review.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo’s said:

“This is a huge relief for Dumisani and his parents. We can only await the final decision and hope that they are successful in their appeal to stay here. We would like to thank all the people who continue to offer their support to Dumisani and his parents, it is of great comfort to them.”


Background to the story:

On 3rd April, just hours before he and his family were due to be put on a flight, Dumisani Lungu, with his mother Caroline Manchinjili* (26) and his father Brian Lungu (35) were informed that the Home Office could not provide an appropriate escort, therefore they were unable to fly.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's said: “We are relieved that Caroline and her family will not face deportation tonight, but the future for this traumatised and vulnerable family is still completely uncertain. We will continue to press for them to remain in the UK.”

Martin Narey continued ‘There are, we think, about 20 children like Dumisani, who are affected by HIV, who are facing immediate deportation and could, if they remained in Britain, enjoy a full life into adulthood. However, we, the fourth richest nation on earth, are going to send this seven year old to Malawi to face an unthinkable future of seeing his mum and dad die and then die alone. This is surely wrong.

‘Dumisani’s gran, the last hope to care for him to in Malawi died from Aids last year. What has happened to this country’s moral compass when we can countenance condemning an innocent seven-year-old to a certain and horrific death.’

Both parents are HIV positive and Caroline also has epilepsy. Her doctor says that Caroline is not fit to fly and without her medication for epilepsy she is likely to die very soon after arriving in Malawi – possibly within one week.

Since arriving in the UK in 2005, they have made an application for asylum and then gone on to appeal, but have failed on both occasions. Barnardo’s has supported the family as they have gone through this process. In the early hours of Friday morning officials from the immigration service arrived at their home in Stockport, Cheshire and took the family out in their pyjamas. Caroline says that they were unable to gather any possessions or even to collect the drugs vital to treating her epilepsy.

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Deportation of HIV-positive parents and boy halted by last-minute hitch

Karen McVeigh
Wednesday April 4, 2007
The Guardian

A seven-year-old boy and his HIV-positive parents escaped deportation last night after a children's charity warned the Home Office that it was effectively condemning the boy to death if it sent his family back to Malawi.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, said Dumisani Lungu's mother was so ill she could die within a week and his father, Brian Lungu, could soon follow, leaving him an orphan and likely to die in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Speaking earlier yesterday, Dumisani's mother, Caroline Manchinjili, said that if they were sent back, she and her husband would die from the lack of medical treatment for HIV/Aids and their son would be left alone. "In Malawi, there is death for people with HIV," she said, from Yarls Wood immigration detention centre.

"No one will look after us. Everyone will run away from us. This is just the end of our world."

Last night Mr Narey, former head of the Prison Service, said: "We are relieved that Caroline and her family have not been deported tonight but the future of this traumatised and vulnerable family is still completely uncertain."

He said he would continue to fight for them to remain in the UK.

The family were taken from Yarls Wood late yesterday afternoon and were due to be deported last night. However, they were told an escort could not be found. A barrister representing the family will now lodge an application for permission to apply for a judicial review and this will be sent to the high court in London today. They came to the UK seeking asylum in 2005, but their case failed. Both parents are in the final stages of HIV/Aids-related illnesses and their son, who has so far tested negative, is feared to be HIV-positive because of his family history.

Mr Narey said that, while asylum tribunals took standards of medical care into account when considering whether to deport asylum seekers, HIV/Aids treatment in Malawi was so limited as to be non-existent. He said it was nonsense for the Home Office to say it could not make an exception in Dumisani's case and said there were 20 similar cases in the UK.

"It's quite wrong for the Home Office to say an exception cannot be made," he said. "We should not send a child home to die.

"In this case, as in other cases we have seen with Malawi, they have said because treatment is available the family can be returned. We should just be very clear and the Home Office should be very clear: this seven-year-old boy will watch his mum and dad die and he will die because of that policy."

The Home Office does not comment on specific cases. It said in a statement that serious medical conditions were taken into account when evaluating asylum claims, but that to allow exceptions would create inconsistencies.

"We are not convinced that a special dispensation should be made for victims of HIV, as this could create inconsistencies in how we treat individuals with other serious illnesses," the statement said.

Home Office guidance on asylum cases states that, while suffering from HIV/Aids is not in itself a bar to removal, Britain has an obligation under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights if there is evidence that, due to a complete absence of medical treatment in the country concerned, deportation would "significantly reduce" the applicant's life expectancy. Article 3 outlaws torture or inhumane treatment.

Mr Narey said there were 20 or so children in the UK with HIV/Aids who are likely to face deportation to "countries like Malawi where death will follow".

He added: "The clinician has told me, told the Home Office that Caroline - who has very serious epilepsy on top of HIV - may die within a week and very shortly after we will have a seven-year-old boy completely on his own and he will die."

Reprieve for child, 7, of dying Aids migrants

The Home Office last night suddenly postponed the deportation of a 7-year-old boy and his HIV-infected parents to Malawi after protests by a former permanent secretary of the department (Richard Ford writes).

Plans to fly the family to Nairobi en route to Malawi were abandoned only hours before the plane was due to leave at 8pm. The family spent the night at Tinsley House removal centre near Gatwick airport, unaware of whether the Home Office will attempt to deport them today.

Last night’s decision came only hours after Martin Narey, a former second permanent secretary in the Home Office, protested that deportation would in effect condemn the boy to death. Mr Narey, now chief executive of Barnardo’s, said Du-misani Lungu’s parents — Caroline Manchinjili and Brian Lungu — were likely to die soon, leaving him an orphan facing almost certain death in the southern African country.

Mr Narey said asylum tribunals took standards of care into account when considering whether to deport failed asylum-seekers, but while HIV treatment was available in Malawi it was so limited as to be virtually nonexistent.

“The Home office should be very clear: this 7-year-old boy will watch his mum and dad die and he will die because of that policy,” he said.

The family sought asylum in 2005, citing political oppression. Both parents are in the final stages of Aids-related ill-nesses and their son is feared to be HIV-positive.