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Sunday 1 December 2013

British Govt’s Attempt To Deport ‘Near Death’ Nigerian Asylum Seeker, Isa Muazu, Fails


 

Isa Muazu
By Ogala Emmanuel
      
A British government attempt to deport a ‘near death’ Nigerian asylum seeker, Isa Muazu, was thwarted on Friday after the Nigerian government denied the chartered private jet rights to land.
The private jet, hired at huge cost to the British government, returned to the UK, from Malta, with Mr. Muazu after hours in the air, sparking backlash against the UK government.
Mr. Muazu was bundled out of the medical wing of Harmondsworth detention centre, amidst protests calling for his release, on Friday for the flight to Nigeria.
Protesters from the Stop Deportations Network closed Harmondsworth detention centre, earlier on Friday, in an attempt to stop Mr. Muazu’s deportation, with one man supergluing himself to the gates of the detention centre. The man was eventually arrested at 7a.m. by a specialist police team who took several hours to remove him.
Mr. Muazu, said to be only skin and bones fat, has been on hunger strike for 100 days, to protest UK’s refusal to grant him asylum. His medical team declared him unfit to fly or be kept in detention, while rights groups condemned the British government’s desperation to remove him from UK.
Mr. Muazu entered the UK on a valid visa in 2007, but decided to remain in the UK for fears he will be killed by Boko Haram, whom he claimed had killed several of his relatives. After seeking asylum he was put in fast track detention, and his claims expressly rejected.
Mr. Muazu’s lawyers told the BBC he had been returned to the medical wing at Harmondsworth detention centre since returning from the failed deportation.

‘End of life plan’
Before arriving the Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport, Mr. Muazu had health conditions including Hepatitis B, kidney problems and stomach ulcers. He complained that the highly processed food served to detainees was worsening his medical conditions but UK detention officials dismissed him as “behaving like a child”.
In October, his physical and mental health deteriorated. His medical team declared he was unfit for detention and edging towards death, but rather than release him, UK immigration officials drew up an ‘end of life plan,’ an alternative to deporting him.
A British High Court and the Court of Appeal also declared Muazu’s detention lawful, ruling that the UK Home Office had the right to remove a man who its staff accepted was close to death and for whom an ‘end of life plan’ had been drawn up.
But Mr. Muazu would not take a deportation. “I feel devastated. I’d rather die than go back. If they can take my body and bury it, that would be the only thing. I’m not going back, I’m telling you. There’s nothing there for me,” he told Vice Magazine’s Simon Childs and Lord Roberts of Llandudno who later started an e-petition calling for his release.
The ‘end of life’ plan included allowing him die on his mattress in his detention room.

Expensive deportation
Apparently, the UK government would not have an asylum seeker on hunger strike die in its detention centre. An expensive deportation plan, which included hiring a private jet, was drawn up.
The UK Home office hired a private jet, with flight number EDC684, registered with Air Charter Scotland Ltd, the aviation firm that flew Mary J Blige to Lagos, in September. The firm also manages the private jet of British business mogul, Lord Sugar.
The UK Home Office had planned to deport Mr. Muazu on a Virgin Atlantic flight but the plan was called off a night before. Rights campaigners said their pressure forced Virgin Atlantic to back down.
Campaigners also attempted to pressure the private jet company to decline the offer to fly Mr. Muazu to Nigeria. Protesters from Unity Centre Glasgow and Student Action for Refugees gathered outside the company’s East Kilbride offices Thursday afternoon, but the firm went ahead to execute the deportation.
Campaigners said it must have cost the British government between 100 to 188 thousand Great British Pounds to execute the failed deportation.
“How can you spend that much deporting only one person when he is not even a criminal?” Jasmine Sallis, a volunteer caseworker at the Unity Centre in Glasgow said. The Unity Centre have been at the forefront of campaigns to free Mr. Muazu.
The aircraft model used in executing the failed deportation, rights campaigners suspect, is a Legacy 600, the same model of aircraft used in deporting radical preacher, Abu Qatada, to Jordan. Mr. Qatada’s deportation was estimated to have cost the UK Home Office over 50 thousand Great British Pounds.
The UK home office is closed till Monday, while the Nigerian aviation authorities could not explains reasons for the plane’s inability to land in Nigeria.
Yakubu Datti, the spokesperson of the Nigerian aviation industry, told PREMIUM TIMES he would make enquiry and revert. He is yet to do so as at the time of publishing this.

Human Rights
UK’s desperation to deport Mr. Muazu cost it both public funds and social capital. Human rights campaigners condemned UK government’s hardline stance to deport the asylum seeker, saying he might die in the process.
Late November, over a hundred NGOs, actors and lawyers wrote to The Guardian to demand Mr. Muazu’s release.
“Like Isa, many feel that their asylum claims have not been fairly heard and that they are losing their freedom only for the “crime” of seeking safety in the UK,” the signatories said. “We are extremely concerned that Isa may die as a result of a hardened stance being taken towards migrants in the UK. We urgently call for clemency in this case. We ask that the home secretary reconsider Isa’s case and act quickly to release him in the UK, so that another death in immigration detention can be avoided.”
Mr. Muazu is not the only person on hunger strike in the asylum detention centre. Unity Centre claim there are at least three other men in the Medical Centre at Harmondsworth detention centre on hunger strike in the same ward as Mr. Muazu with possibly more hunger strikers in other wards at the detention centre.
“One of the men started his hunger strike on 5 November,” the Unity Centre said.



#saharareporters
#premiumtimes

One hell of a toothache!....Man Escapes From Swedish Prison, Goes To Dentist, Turns Self Back In



 inmate escapes prison dentist


A 51-year-old Swedish inmate broke out of prison in November "because he had a toothache and wanted to go the dentist," officials said, the AFP reported Saturday.

The inmate, who was scheduled to be released the next day anyway, turned himself into police after getting his tooth treated. His sentence -- originally one month -- was only increased by one day.

The man told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter he had been complaining to prison officials about the pain for four days and finally busted out because he "just couldn't stand it," according to a translation by The Local.

CCTV captures the horrifying moment French mother calmly pushes her baby girl to drown in the sea because she claimed child was 'incompatible' with her love life

 Berck-sur-Mer
Fabienne Kabou, 36, from Senegal, pushed little Adelaide to the coast of Berck sur Mer on November 19. The next day, Adelaide was found dead. She now faces life imprisonment. The case has sparked outrage as hundreds took to the streets outside the court and on the coast in a White March - a French style of demonstrating against child cruelty.

  • Fabienne Kabou, 36, has admitted to police she wanted to kill the child
  • In police interview she said baby was 'incompatible' with her and boyfriend
  • Checked into hotel in Berck sur Mer with baby Adelaide on November 19
  • The next day Adelaide was found dead, strapped in pram, in the water
  • Demonstrators have taken to streets calling for crackdown on child cruelty

A mother faces life imprisonment after confessing she drowned her 15-month-old daughter in the English Channel because the child was 'incompatible' with her love life.
CCTV footage has emerged of Fabienne Kabou, 36, from Senegal, pushing little Adelaide to the coast of Berck sur Mer on November 19.
The next day, Adelaide was found dead, strapped in a pushchair submerged in the water, by a fisherman.
After ten days of searching nationwide, police used DNA from the pram to trace Ms Kabou to the home she shares with a 63-year-old man in Paris, where she was arrested.
Ms Kabou, a philosophy student, told police she took the drastic move after deciding motherhood was 'incompatible' with her love life with Adelaide's father.
The case has sparked outrage as hundreds took to the streets outside the court and on the coast in a White March - a French style of demonstrating against child cruelty.
Ms Kabou had told her boyfriend, a sculptor, that she had handed over the little girl to her grandmother who had agreed to look after her in Senegal, police claim.
On Saturday, Kabou was taken under Police guard to Boulogne sur Mer and questioned for four hours by an examining judge in a closed court session.
The judge placed her under investigation for murder. She was remanded in custody pending her trial.
Her lawyer Fabienne Roy-Nansion  who was present during the interrogation said that her client had made a full confession.


She was traced to a house in an eastern suburb of Paris where she lives with a 63-year-old man
Arrested: She was traced to a house in an eastern suburb of Paris where she lives with a 63-year-old man
Demonstrating: A banner reads 'Our thoughts are with you, Princess'
Demonstrating: A banner reads 'Our thoughts are with you, Princess' held by a teenager as inhabitants of Berck-sur-Mer, northern France take part in a White March to pay homage to little Adelaide

White March: The first White March took place in 1996 in Belgium
White March: The first White March took place in 1996 in Belgium as people showed their anger towards serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux who kept girls in his basement
Mourning: People left flowers, toys and messages on the coast as French people express outrage in Berck
Mourning: People left flowers, toys and messages on the coast as French people express outrage in Berck

Tributes: A bouquet of white roses with a note reading 'rest in peace little angel' is left on the beach
Tributes: A bouquet of white roses with a note reading 'rest in peace little angel' is left on the beach



  #dailymail.co.uk

PHOTOS: Train derails in New York, killing 4


First responders gather around the derailment of a Metro-North passenger train in the Bronx borough of New York on Sunday, December 1. Of eight train cars, seven were off the tracks.

"The windows broke out. ... The gravel came flying up in our faces," said passenger Amanda Swanson, who put her bag in front of her face to block the rubble. "I really didn't know if I would survive," she said. "The train felt like it was on its side and dragging for a long time. ... The whole thing felt like slow motion."

Firefighters and rescue personnel work at the scene of the passenger train derailment near the Spuyten Duyvil station.

A person is evacuated from the scene of the derailment.

Cars from the Metro-North passenger train are scattered across the tracks.

Firefighters and emergency rescuers swarm the scene near Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, where train cars had flipped on their sides. One car was just feet away from the Harlem River.

The train operator -- who is among the injured -- told investigators he applied brakes to the train, but it didn't slow down, a law enforcement official on the scene and familiar with the investigation said.

Police divers were in the Harlem River hours after the crash searching for survivors, CNN affiliate WABC reported.

Emergency crews work at the scene of the train wreck.


New York (CNN) -- Rail cars flipped over when a passenger train derailed Sunday morning, killing at least four people and injuring dozens more.

Firefighters and emergency rescuers swarmed the scene near Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, where at least two train cars were turned on their sides. One car was just feet away from the Harlem River.

Three of the dead were thrown "as the train came off the track and was twisting and turning," New York Fire Department Chief Edward Kilduff told reporters.

"The windows broke out. ... The gravel came flying up in our faces," said passenger Amanda Swanson, who put her bag in front of her face to block the rubble.

"I really didn't know if I would survive," she said. "The train felt like it was on its side and dragging for a long time. ... The whole thing felt like slow motion."

Police divers were in the water hours after the crash looking for survivors, and cadaver dogs searched the wreckage. Authorities believe all the passengers have been accounted for, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters.

It was unclear how fast the train was traveling and how many passengers were on board.



"I heard this horrible, whooshing sound. ... It was very disturbing, very loud," said Hank Goldman, who lives near the tracks. "I jumped out of bed and looked out the window and I saw a light-colored object lying down. I thought it was the roadway to the train. Then I got my binoculars, and I couldn't believe my eyes, that the train had jumped the tracks right here."

At least 67 people were injured, 11 seriously, said Joe Bruno, New York's commissioner of emergency management.

"In terms of causes, we don't know exactly what happened," Cuomo said.

Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were headed to the scene, he said.

The train operator -- who is among the injured -- told investigators he applied brakes to the train, but it didn't slow down, a law enforcement official on the scene and familiar with the investigation said.

"That will be a key point of concern, whether this train was moving too quickly," Bruno said.

The train had been traveling from the Hudson Valley town of Poughkeepsie, 100 miles north of New York, to New York's Grand Central Station.

It came off the tracks just as it was coming around a sharp curve shortly after 7 a.m., fire officials told CNN affiliate WCBS.

Of eight train cars, seven were off the tracks.

Passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC he thought the train was traveling "a lot faster" than usual.

He escaped a derailed car on his own and had head and neck injuries, he said. Other passengers were still on the train, he told WABC.

Another survivor told WABC that she climbed out of a train car that had overturned.

Nearby, she said, she heard injured victims moaning and asking for help.

"I almost feel guilty," she said. "I was just in a really safe spot on the train, just the way it fell."

Injured victims were taken to several hospitals in New York.

At St. Barnabas Hospital, doctors treated 12 patients, at least two of whom were in critical condition. One of the victims suffered a spinal cord injury that could leave him paralyzed from the neck down, said Dr. David Listman, director of the hospital's emergency department.

The derailment occurred near where a freight train derailed in July, WCBS reported. No one was injured in that accident.

Federal authorities are still investigating a collision between two Metro-North trains in May, when two passenger trains crashed during rush hour in Connecticut.

Service was suspended Sunday on part of the Hudson Line, Metro-North said on Twitter.

Amtrak said it was suspending service between New York and Albany indefinitely after the derailment.

It's unclear how long the investigation will take, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for Metro-North Rail.

"Once the NTSB gives us the all-clear, then we can begin to repair and clean up the tracks," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama was briefed on the derailment.

"His thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families who lost a loved one and everyone affected by this incident," the White House said.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York called on federal authorities to investigate "with speed and certainty."

"We must figure out how this happened," he said.


#CNN

Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker dies in car crash

 
When i read about this sad news early this morning i hoped and prayed it was one of those hoax obituaries, but now i'm beginning to see that this one is real....Paul Walker is dead!

The 40-year-old died on Saturday when a Porsche being driven by a friend, who also died, crashed near Los Angeles. The accident happened while Walker was attending an event for his charity Reach Out Worldwide.

Walker starred in five of the six movies in the popular Fast & Furious franchise and had started filming the seventh.

Wreckage of Porsche sports car that crashed into a lamp post in Valencia, Los Angeles. 30 Nov 2013
The red Porsche crashed into a lamp post in Valencia, north of Los Angeles



Paul Walker's life and career in pictures: