Lemlem Hussein Abdu
Lemlem Must Stay!
LATEST UPDATE – LEMLEM’S FLIGHT CANCELLED
To those of you who do not know already, we received news today aound 5 p.m. that an injunction had been granted at the court in Manchester to stop LemLem’s flight to Addis Ababa. She will NOT now be travelling tommorrow.
We need to continue to put pressure on Teresa May, the Home Secretary, to exercise her power of discretion in this case, and, specifically on Meg Munn, LemLem’s constituency M.P. to intervene with Teresa May on Lemlem’s behalf.
She is currently being held in detention and will be deported if we do not act now!
Lemlem was born in 1950 in what is now Eritrea. In 1978 her village was burned down and her entire family was murdered
during an attack by Ethiopian forces. Her family and neighbours were targeted due to their support for the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), which was fighting for independence from Ethiopia.
Lemlem fled to Sudan and then subsequently to Saudia Arabia, where she obtained a position as a domestic worker. In 2000, Lemlem’s employers visited the UK and took her with them. She had a fall and injured herself when looking after the family’s children and has never fully recovered. Her employers stopped paying her wages as she could no longer carry out some heavy physical tasks. Then, in 2007, on a subsequent visit to the UK, the family abandoned her, with no money and no identification. Lemlem claimed asylum but has been refused. She is not allowed to work and receives no support, so has to rely on short-term help from a local charity, help which is now running out.
Despite her difficult position, Lemlem has a positive outlook. She is working hard to improve her English and is an active and well-loved member of her local community in Sheffield. The Home Office is threatening to deport her to either Eritrea, where the ELF of whom she has been a member for many years is now persecuted by the government, and where she no longer has any family or friends, or Ethiopia, where she has never lived and knows no-one. We, the undersigned, ask you to grant LemLem indefinite leave to remain in the UK so that she finally has somewhere safe she can call home.
Please download the petition below and get some signatures for Lemlem or sign online.
Also download the following model letters to Meg Munn MP (Lemlem’s MP) and Theresa May MP (Home Secretary)