Puck de Raadt of the Churches Refugee and Racial Justice Network writes,

So far the Early Day Motion (EDM) against deportation of refused asylum seekers to Congo has 2 signatures only…An ‘EDM’ becomes noteworthy only after some 45 signatures……It has no power in itself, but is a useful indicator of the strength of Parliamentary and public feeling about a topic.

It’s author is Rudi Vis, the MP for Finchley in N.London, where there is a good Jewish/R.Catholic drop-in centre looking after several Congolese, including an elderly lady at risk of removal whose family is here, not in Congo.

It was published on February 23rd. Please help to swell the number of signatures from MP’s by writing to yours asking him or her to add their name.

You might use in your letter to the MP a decision last week from the Strasbourg EU Court of Human Rights which establishes that people fleeing violence could and should be given international protection status not only because they are personally targeted, but because theirs is a country so unstable that ordinary civilians are also at serious risk. European decisions apply to British immigration law.

If you want to check out that ECHR decision, then here is the website address and case details:
www.echr.coe.int. The details of the case are:’Meki Elgafaji and Noor Elgafaji v. Staatssecretaris van Justitie’; Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-465/07 – 17th February 2009
The appellants are Iraqis , but the same argument undoubtedly applies to many if not most Congolese….

Yours sincerely,

Puck de Raadt
Churches Refugee and Racial Justice Network.