The testimony project is a great idea with video testimonies of people's experience seeking asylum in the UK. Here is Marjorie's story of her fight for family reunion:
Marjorie now has her papers, but her story is just beginning. When she left Uganda in 2002 she left behind a daughter, Sweetny, now 11. Marjorie’s story is the story of a mother and a daughter separated, a family divided...
http://www.testimonyproject.org/testimonyprojectuk/video/marjories-video-testimony
Marjorie was born in 1976 into a big family active in the Democratic Party, Uganda’s opposition party. She married a lieutenant in the army and had a daughter, Sweetny.
From a privileged background, she worked as a women’s rights advocate, a frontline activist raising awareness of issues such as domestic violence, child immunisation and family planning.
By 2000, she had became actively involved with opposition politics, especially the Forum for Democratic Change who wanted to end President Museveni’s term in office. She distributed leaflets, organised transport to rallies and held meetings at her house.
On 1 March 2001 Marjorie and her husband were arrested and accused of being rebels. They were taken to an army prison.
“Even if I’m given a British passport or win the lottery that will not take away what I went through – rape, beatings humiliation… They do such horrible things to you.”
Marjorie remained in prison for four months until, eighteen weeks pregnant, she escaped by bribing a guard with two million Ugandan shillings (£600).
She went into hiding in her grandmother’s village in the extreme west of Uganda. While in hiding, she discovered that her father had been killed and that the security forces were looking for her.
In Uganda, every village resident must be registered with the local council and Marjorie was obliged to register while in hiding. In October 2001 state officials located her and she was taken to a “safe house”, a term used to describe the detention centres dotted around the Ugandan capital city, Kampala, where the Ugandan security forces detain and torture their victims.
In 2004, the Human Rights Watch report into Uganda stated that, "safe houses continued to be a permanent feature of the Ugandan system of detention and provided ample opportunity for torture and interrogation".
Two weeks after arriving at the safe house, she lost the baby she was carrying due to the beatings she endured.
“I was burnt with cigarettes”, Marjorie says. “I was cut with razors. I was raped I don’t know how many times.”
On 28 September 2002, with the help of a prison guard, an escape was planned. Marjorie was seven months pregnant.
In the middle of the night five women crawled through a hole dug under a barbed wire fence.
The guards were alerted and they began to shoot. Three women died. Marjorie and one other survived.
I was burnt with cigarettes I was cut with razors, I was raped
Marjorie was taken to Entebbe airport where she boarded a flight to the UK, arriving on 30 September 2002. She thinks her husband must have arranged her escape.
She woke up in Dalston, East London. Her ‘chaperone’ had disappeared, leaving just a business card with the telephone number of a firm of local conveyancing solicitors.
All Marjorie had with her was 7,000 Ugandan shillings (less than one pound). The solicitors’ firm told Marjorie to go to the UK Border Agency in Croydon.
When Marjorie arrived in Croydon, immigration staff were so shocked by her state they immediately called an ambulance. Marjorie was hospitalised for malnourishment and dehydration. She was seven months pregnant.
Following discharge, Marjorie survived on support from the Red Cross, the Refugee Council and concerned members of the community. In 2003 she gave birth to a baby girl.
At her initial screening interview for asylum in October 2002, no one asked Marjorie about her reasons for fleeing Uganda, which was because of political persecution. In December 2003 the Home Office rejected her claim for asylum. Her appeal, too, was rejected. However the judge accepted that Marjorie had been tortured and she was granted humanitarian protection. This was then successfully appealed by the Home Office. Finally, in January 2008, after five and a half years, Marjorie was granted indefinite leave to remain.
She says of the experience of being an asylum seeker,
‘the British government torture us diplomatically. Because they are not beating us, they are not raping us, they are not cutting us, but they are torturing us in the best way possible: you can’t work, you can’t go to college, you have to sign-on, you are put in detention… they are not doing it physically but they are doing it mentally. And there’s no worse torture than mental torture.’
Since 2004, Marjorie has spoken to select committees about the problems that asylum seekers face.
But having papers for Marjorie is not the end of the story
Marjorie has not seen her family since 2001. Marjorie’s parents, brother and sister have all died since she left Uganda. She last saw her husband in June 2001 when she escaped from prison. And she last saw Sweetny, her eldest daughter, in February 2001 when she was four years old.
Sweetny is now 11. She goes to boarding school in Uganda. Without any family or guardian she must remain there – a solitary pupil - in the school holidays.
Marjorie’s application to be reunited with her was refused in January 2009. One of the grounds given was that there was no evidence that they were related.
Marjorie's appeal in August 2009 was adjourned for further evidence.
In the end it took place on Friday 13th November 2009. At the adjourned hearing the judge saw video evidence from Uganda of Sweetny and of Marjorie's mother's funeral together with a positive DNA test proving that Marjorie is Sweetny's mother (this point had been contested by the Home Office).
The judge subsequently said that she would allow the appeal on the grounds of Article 8, the right to family life.
Sweetny's passport is currently with the relevant authorities awaiting her visa for entry into the UK. As soon as this is processed Sweetny can fly to London to be reunited with her mother and sister.
Sweetny will be here any day now and all Marjorie can do is wait.
Everyone has the right to seek asylum. The Testimony Project believes that those seeking refuge in our country should have the right to dignified, humane and fair treatment that respects their human rights, protects their physical and mental wellbeing, and that follows a fair and efficient process. Deliberate destitution, violent deportation, the splitting of families, and dehumanising detention run counter to the original spirit of asylum and should cease immediately. Please, hear our voice.
