Thanks to all who have responded so far to our appeals for support. We went
to see the Ndeh family today at Yarl's Wood. What a dreadful place and what
a particularly dreadful place to lock up 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year olds!!!
Cyril Jason, the oldest child is very ill. He is running a high temperature
and probably needs a blood transfusion according to the specialist who
treats him in the haematology department at the Sheffield Northern General
Hospital, to whom I spoke at length this evening. Even if he were getting
all of the medication he needs (which he isn't) he is too ill now to keep it
down.
He is not eating at all and has lost a lot of weight this week as a
consequence. He is listless and not responding to stimulus including to
anyone talking to him. He is now unable to support his body, flopping over
and not standing unsupported. He is not talking at all or making any
sounds. All of this is a substantial change from before he was taken
without any clothes to Yarl's Wood when 11 police officers raided the family
home at 6.30 am last Sunday.
Cyril Jason is running a very high temperature. He is shaking at night with
cold. He sleeps on the floor much of the time in the two-bed cell, four
meters by five meters, in which the family of 5 is "accommodated". They
have no blankets and only 4 thin nylon sheets between the 5 of them!
Very worryingly, Cyril Jason is not drinking fluids hardly at all. Given
his condition and his illness, he should be taking in more fluids than would
be typical for a 3-year-old, not none at all today so far! He is however
Black and the child of an asylum seeker so Yarles Wood don't actually appear
to think it is that important!
If you can get people to call Yarles Wood and the home Office to remind them
of their duty of care and perhaps arrange a hospital visit for him, that
would be great. We are hopeful of stopping the deportation tomorrow if the
pressure you have exerted so far is sustained.
The campaign has planned a high court injunction and a request for a
judicial review. Even if this combined pressure and legal action raises the
profile of their situation sufficiently to stop the deportation however, we
may not get the family released from Yarles Wood.
We are arranging car loads to go to Heathrow tomorrow night if it doesn't
look like we can stop the deportation by traditional methods. We are also
asking people to put pressure on British Airways and to contact UNITE (the
trade union) at BA Heathrow, as two of the children, Kirsty and to a more
urgent extent Jason, are not fit to travel. In fact, I feel sure having
seen him today, that he is becoming dangerously ill and would under any
other circumstances be taken straight to hospital.
Thanks for your continued efforts and please keep up the pressure as the
planned deportation of this family is on Saturday morning 17 May.
Don't forget that if the deportation goes ahead, the almost certain outcome
will be immediate arrest of the whole family when they land in Cameroon,
with their detention in even more squalid conditions than exist at Yarl's
Wood. They will have no medical attention, be exposed to diseases to which
the two Disabled Children are especially susceptible and, more than likely
in the case of the adults, put to death because of their previous political
activities.
Best wishes,
Linda Laurie and Mike Higgins,
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