VISITOR GROUP TREASURER IN TINSLEY HOUSE

Our treasurer, John Bosco Nyombi, a Ugandan asylum seeker with permission to work, was arrested on Tuesday when signing on at Portsmouth Police Station. He was given Removal Directions for Sunday and taken to Gatwick at 1.30am on Sunday morning for a Brussels Airlines flight for Uganda. He didn't fly and last night was in Tinsley House Removal Centre 01293 434800  Room 31B. We think he may be moved to Dover today.

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14th September 2008

The Southampton Echo reports:

Bosco refuses to board plane

by Ash Bolton

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A MAN due to be deported back to Uganda is still in the UK after refusing to board his plane this morning.

Campaigners have been trying to save John 'Bosco' Nyombi from being sent back to the East African country where they fear he will be persecuted because of his sexuality.

The 38-year-old was due to fly from Gatwick Airport at 6.40am but the plane took off without him leaving him with the immigration services.

Neil Pugmire, a spokesman from the Diocese of Portsmouth, said: “We received a telephone call from John on a landline in Gatwick Airport telling me he had refused to get on the plane and that they had accepted that decision.

“He’s still being held at Gatwick Airport. I imagine that the immigration services are looking for a detention centre that they can take him to. That, we hope, will buy us some time for his solicitor to take some legal action – an injunction or a judicial review.”

A number of friends, work colleagues and campaigners also travelled up to the airport this morning to protest at his forced departure.

Colleagues at Stonham Housing Association, where he has worked almost since his arrival, launched a campaign and a petition, which they plan to send to the Home Office.

But Neil added that there had been no last minute review of his deportation from the government.

Bosco has been working with mentally ill people in the city for the past six years while his application to stay in the UK has been heard by the immigration authorities.

He fled to the UK from Uganda where homosexuality is illegal and carries a punishment of life in prison.

Bosco, as he is known, was also told his life could be in danger, after his brother, a high profile opposition campaigner, was murdered.

He was unexpectedly taken into custody this week after his last appeal was refused.

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10th September 2008

News from THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

DIOCESE OF PORTSMOUTH

11th September 2008

Bishop Supports Asylum Seeker's Case

The Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth has spoken of his outrage at the treatment of a member of one of his congregations who has been threatened with deportation on Sunday. (Sept 14)

The Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson said he was “shocked and ashamed” that John Bosco Nymobi was being treated in this way by the Home Office. The 31-year-old gay asylum seeker was arrested on Tuesday (Sept 9) and is due to be returned to Uganda. He believes he will be killed if he is returned there because of his sexuality.

He was taken from Portsmouth Central police station last night (Sept 10-11) to a detention centre in Dover, where he arrived at 4.30am. He has not been allowed access to a change of clothes or toiletries. He has been told that he will be put on a flight to Uganda at 6.40am on Sunday morning.

Bishop Kenneth said: “I find it difficult to understand why a law-abiding, rent-paying, tax-paying member of our society who is working in a socially-useful job should be asked to leave. I feel shocked and ashamed that he is being treated in such an unjust and uncaring way by the Home Office.

“John Bosco came to Britain from Uganda in September 2001.  
He was detained in Haslar Immigration Centre in Gosport for four months while his application was being processed. However, he has been legally working since 2003 as a care assistant and project worker in Southampton. In other words, he is a tax-paying member of our community. He is also a committed worshipper in one of the parishes in my diocese – St Jude’s in Southsea.
 
“A court ruled in May 2002 that John Bosco was allowed to stay in Britain, but the Home Office appealed against the decision.

There followed six years of legal wrangling till he was finally told to leave the UK earlier this summer. When arrested he was still considering his legal options. The Home Office had not cancelled

The bishop is due to be speaking at St Jude’s Church on Sunday morning (Sept 14), when prayers will be said for John Bosco. Worshippers and supporters are due to take part in a prayer meeting tonight (Sept 11) and are lobbying the Home Office to allow him to stay.

John Bosco himself is able to speak to supporters on the phone, but hasn’t been allowed any visitors yet.

He said: “They moved me in the middle of the night. We picked up other people in Hounslow and Croydon, so we were driving all over London. We got here at 4.30am and by the time they searched us and we’d got to our rooms it was 6am. I’m sharing a room with eight other people. I’ve been able to have a shower, but not to change my clothes.

“I want to thank everybody who has been supporting my case and working hard for me. I don’t know what will happen to me if I’m taken back, but I know I can’t be protected from the government.”

John Bosco had worked since 2003 for Stonham Housing Association in Southampton, which helps vulnerable adults – such as those with mental health problems, learning disabilities or additions – to live independently. Most recently, he has been one of their project workers.

His manager, Mark Chambers, said that he and his staff were outraged that John Bosco had not been allowed to say goodbye to work colleagues or the clients that he had helped.

“He is a selfless person who is always thinking of others and a very diligent worker,” he said. “He has done so much to help the vulnerable adults he works with, and this seems so unfair when he’s given so much to society in such a short time. He’s done everything in the correct way, and by the law. We want to him to continue his new life in England.”
 
The prayer meeting at St Jude’s Church, Kent Road, Southsea, will happen between 7pm-7.45pm tonight (Thursday 11th September). Anyone, of all faiths or none, is welcome to attend to show their support for John Bosco.

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9th September 2008

VISITOR GROUP TREASURER ARRESTED

Our treasurer, John Bosco Nyombi, a Ugandan asylum seeker with permission to work, was arrested on Tuesday when signing on at Portsmouth Police Station. He was given Removal Directions for Sunday.

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13th August 2008

WOW! WE GOT THEM ALL OUT!

Haslar visitors had a great success on 13th August when, after a long campaign, the final three Zimbabweans were released from Haslar.

There were four articles in the Guardian, letters written to a number of MPs, many of the great and the good petitioned to be sureties. A question was asked in the House of Lords. On the 20th July the Home Office was claiming that all the Zimbabweans in Haslar were "a danger to the UK", but within two weeks half were released on "temporary admission. BID, the bail charity did a wonderful job of preparing bail applications for the remaining three and we finally went to court on 13th August with a first rate pro-bono barrister. Three seperate cases were heard and bail was granted to each of the three men. 

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7th August 2008

The Problem