Letter: The inhumanity and injustice of Britain's asylum laws

BY MARYAM NAMAZIE

The Independent - United Kingdom; May 30, 2003

Sir: Abas Amini, the Iranian asylum seeker living in Nottingham, continues his hunger strike despite our unrelenting efforts to save his life ("Ready to die: the asylum-seeker who says he fled torture and was driven to self-mutilation by Britain", 28 May). He refuses to end his hunger strike in protest of the Home Office's inhuman and racist asylum policy. Doctors say his kidneys will soon stop functioning and he will go into a coma. He nonetheless refuses medical assistance, food and water.

This human tragedy unfolding before our eyes says much about a vile asylum policy that has driven Amini to stitch his eyes and lips together and want to take his own life. It says much about a policy that forces human beings like Amini, a young man of 33 who has struggled so long and hard against the Islamic Republic of Iran, survived torture, mock executions and years of imprisonment, flight and separation from his spouse and children to take such desperate measures. His personal tale is a cry against the treatment of today's asylum seekers by the UK government. It is also exposes the shameful dealings between the UK government and the repressive Islamic regime in Iran at the expense of countless victims of persecution.

But while it reveals much about the inhumanity and injustice of the UK's asylum policies, Amini's tale also speaks volumes about humanity itself which, despite the daily barrage of racist scapegoating, have come out in full force in defence of his life and dignity and that of all asylum seekers. People need to continue coming out in support of Amini's life and the lives of so many nameless, faceless refugees facing closed borders, unfair refusals, detentions, and deportations.

MARYAM NAMAZIE

Executive Director, International Federation of Iranian Refugees

London N11