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NCADC Campaign Alert

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Keep Fanta in the UK!
http://bit.ly/gtfN5D

Fanta Kongira, 21 years old, is currently detained at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre and faces forced removal on Friday, February 4 2011, on Monarch Airlines flight at 9.15 a.m, from London to Banjul, Gambia. She left her home country of Gambia and arrived in the UK on 7th February 2010, fleeing from the prospect of a forced marriage. Her mother lives in the UK, with her two younger children. Please act now to support Fanta's case and to help her stay with her mother.

Fanta was born in 1989. Her mother moved to Leeds, UK in 1998 and received indefinite leave to remain while Fanta was left in Gambia. Fanta's two younger siblings were born and live here in the UK with her mother. Fanta's father died last year.

Fanta applied for a family visitor's visa in 2005 but this was refused because it was not believed that she and her mother were related. She applied for indefinite leave to remain in 2007 and this was also turned down. Finally, she was granted a six month visitors visa and came to the UK in February 2010. She continued living in the UK after her visa expired and was detained in December at which point she claimed asylum.

In Gambia the relatives of Fanta's father arranged a forced marriage for her but she wants to remain unmarried and to study. She believes that, should she be returned home and does not agree to comply with the marriage, she will be physically harmed. Her mother disagrees with the marriage and wants to have Fanta by her side here in the UK.

Fanta will receive no state protection at home because the police force in Gambia generally do not interfere in 'family matters' (http://bit.ly/h8rYh4). There is no legislation specifically criminalising domestic violence or forced marriages in Gambia, and Fanta fears that she will not receive any protection against these possible dangers. (http://bit.ly/euE5C1). She also cannot relocate because the country is small and she fears that her father's older brother will find her, wherever she goes.

Campaigners are also extremely concerned about the health and well-being of Fanta during her detention in Yarl's Wood. There has been substantial research on the severe and long-term psychological damage that detention can cause to children and young people. See The Mental and Physical Health Difficulties of Children Held Within a British Immigration Detention Centre: A Pilot Study (http://bit.ly/fz6t62) and Medical Justice's State Sponsored Cruelty (http://bit.ly/eVWkkL).

What can you do to help?
Click here for sample model letters http://bit.ly/gtfN5D

Please act now to keep this family together here in the UK and to protect Fanta from a forced marriage.

1) Write to the Home Secretary
Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF

Fax: 020 7035 4745
emails:
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2) Write to Monarch Airlines
Kevin George, Managing Director
Monarch Airlines,
Prospect House,
Prospect Way, L
London Luton Airport,
Luton, LU2 9NU

End of Bulletin.

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