So, I've started my parentcraft classes.

When I was just 11 weeks pregnant, a long time ago, I was given the choice to sign up to those very popular classes. While legally I have a right to attend them during my working hours, morally I didn't want to do this as I'd started a new job being already pregnant and felt bad enough about that awkward timing. Actually, that's not the only reason - between antenatal appointments, appointments recommended due to the minor ailments of pregnancy, and such parentcraft classes I could just as well not be working at all anymore. To be honest, I like my work too much to be tempted.

So I signed up for the only available place at an evening parentcraft class, to be attended with my beloved. Just that my beloved commutes and simply cannot attend. So I turned up on my own last night and brought the wrath of midwife Linda over my bumpy self. It was surreal - being reprimanded like a naughty school girl, asked five times if my hubby really couldn't make it. Being told I should not attend, and rebook into a day class. Work? No matter, you have a legal right to time off bladibla and anyway, why are you not on maternity leave yet, you should be conserving your energy for LABOUR which won't be an easy ride let me tell you.

Oh bugger off.
I'm sure work increases my energy levels. And even if I did book a daytime class, there's 5 weeks of "parentcraft" and I've got 5 weeks of pregnancy left, I really don't want to start even a day later.
Best of all, at no point was the partner necessary in last nights class. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for daddy involvement, where appropriate and possible. At the end of the day though it is I who is carrying a massive bump, who will be giving birth who will be doing the breastfeeding. Give me a break and above all stop treating me like a child.

Enough of a rant? Not so. It went on. In just 90 minutes, I was advised that no food was allowed for mum in labour (who are you to tell me?), that once in the labour ward, mum is not allowed to go through the hospital door (is it a prison?), that I had to stay in hospital between 3-4 days after giving birth (although I know that a 6 hour discharge is possible even if not recommended), that the food was so rubbish my partner had rather feed me, that a breech baby would only be delivered by c-section for first time mums (can they really cut you open without consent?).

Suddenly I can understand the avid home birth supporters. I can get patronised elsewhere, it doesn't have to happen while going through giving birth.

Zahra's removal to Uganda has been cancelled pending judicial review of the Home Office's removal directions.

At the minimum, this is buying time, but what would be really good news, especially in the light of my previous post on the conditions awaiting refused asylum seekers who are returned to Uganda, would be the official acceptance that returns to Uganda are not safe.

This would still not give Zahra indefinite leave to remain, and not necessarily return her to Glasgow (she could continue to be held in a detention centre, or be housed anywhere at all in the UK pending the result of the judicial review), but it would be a start.

The imminent danger to her safety is lifted, that's a huge success, in the grand scheme, it's a small step, leaving her and her kids still in a state of great uncertainty. And in continued detention.

Zahra Byansi and her two children are due to be deported to Uganda tomorrow, with a 7pm flight. I received an update of suggested action, and while I was initially disbelieving in the claims what is likely to happen upon her return (via Ethiopia strangely), and was reluctant to use this information in any final fax-writing, a little bit of research has shown that the claims are more than realistic and it's all the more pressing that Zahra and her kids should not be returned because Uganda very simply is not safe, contrary to Home Office beliefs.

The situation very much mirrors what I was presented with as a legal typist years ago, when working for a solicitor who dealt with asylum applications in Germany from French speaking Africans, mainly from the Cote D'Ivoire. Anyone returned as a failed asylum seeker was marked on the passenger list and upon arrival "disappeared". Independent agencies and NGOs confirmed this, yet the German government continued the returns, disbelieving the evidence and claiming it was safe to return to the Cote d'Ivoire.

Failed asylum seekers returned to Uganda, whether direct or via Ethiopia, are subject to severe human rights abuses - of course this does not mean it happens to everyone, but it does happen. This includes rape, separating children from their parents and sending them to orphanages (to be adopted by Madonna?), torture, sex slavery, "disappearances" and much more:

"As described by the experts, the pattern is very simple. A failed asylum seeker, with a deportation certificate, arrives at Entebbe airport and is handed over to one of the security organisations. If suspected of political dissident activities, the person is taken to a safehouse for questioning. Rape, for young women, is inevitable. Children over the age of three[...] are taken from their mother and put in an orphanage. Detention can last weeks, or months; a number of people have "disappeared" from custody."

This is taken from a Guardian article from August 2006.

So, the action that is suggested is to present this by fax to the Home Office as well as to the airline that Zahra is booked on, as soon as possible, clearly, as her flight is tomorrow. She is due to depart on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET0701 at 19:00 hrs to Addis Ababa and from there to Entebbe:

1. Ethiopian Airlines offices at Heathrow airport asking for the airline not to allow her on board the plane.

Ethiopian Airlines

Room 238

Terminal 3

Heathrow

Fax 0208 747 9339

 

2. Liam Byrne, Minister of Immigration's office asking for Zahra’s case to be reconsidered and the removal notice lifted. Please make sure to quote Zahra’s Home Office number; B1127212

Saturday morning saw a windswept protest at Glasgow's Brand Street Immigration and Nationality Directorate offices against the detention and threatened removal of Zahra Byansi. Despite the early hour and the horrific weather, 70 people (according to the BBC) turned out - I didn't count but it seems a fair estimate.

BBC coverage is available in text and video, I refrain from putting my 45 min video online both due to filesize and the atrocious quality (never used a camcorder before) although I may look into video editing software and start a new hobby. I'm sure there'll be other, less mainstream, coverage as well. (at Positive Action in Housing: here and here.

Zahra was moved to Yarls Wood detention centre, which is in England, i.e. further away from her home, but also closer to the airport from which she and her two children is to be removed to Uganda in just two days. This also means that the lifeline of the mobile phone link to her has been cut. Some campaigners suggested to go to Yarls Wood for protests, and a petition has collected close to 400 signatures in just one week. Hope dies last and I try not to give in to a realistic assessment of Zahra's situation. It doesn't help that the Home Office is in the news for quite a different story today, and are keen to be seen as hardliners to make up for the mess created at the other end of their offices.

All the more striking the injustice that convicted murderers get away without any monitoring, while innocent victims of war and repression, whose only "fault" is not to have been believed by the asylum judges, are locked up behind prison walls alongside their children. Rahim, 5 year old son of Zahra, asked for a message to be passed on to his schoolmates, that he was on a holiday, while his mom asked not to be given her belongings from her flat which she had to leave behind, because she will need to travel light, having to travel with two young children on her own.

She is a strong woman, but how can one cope with being locked up with your kids without having committed a crime, being taken from education and a home, having to leave everything behind yet again, to be sent back to an unstable government where the family will not enjoy any form of protection at all. In my mind her words echo when she tearfully spoke about her efforts to create a cosy, comfortable, nice and welcoming home, only to be taken to detention with her children in a dawn raid last time around, to be treated like a criminal when all she tried was to create a sense of normality and belonging for her children and herself.

Guantantanamo Bay is celebrating its 5th birthday. Celebrating is the most inappropriate term ever, but generally, it goes with birthday, so for the sake of convention and the way language works, let us stick to it.

It is still an affront to Human Rights and the belief in a just world and no special announcement any American president can make will change that. But there are some slightly amusing stories to be told in the face of all the seriousness of the issue: The demonstrations against Guantanamo in Edinburgh and London, called for and organised by respectable NGOs including Amnesty International, have prompted a careful warning by the US embassy. Ever concerned for the safety of their citizens (that must be why they send more troops to Iraq), they have asked their subject to stay away from London and Edinburgh in case of violence perpetrated against them on the grounds of their nationality.
They must think we're all stupid. Or they are themselves stupidider than I thought. As if it's the US citizens' fault that Guantanamo exists and still operates. As if any of the protesters had anything against any US American. In fact, particularly US citizens are invited to join the demonstration. Being from the land of the free, they are probably the first to be ashamed of Guantanamo Bay one would think.

On a more serious matter though, Guantanamo Bay has demonstrated a great injustice of international law. Detainees at Guantanamo who are residents of a country but either stateless or resident in a country other than their nationality have not been represented by the state of their usual residence. Sounds technical? Well, here's an example. In Germany, until recently, if you were born to Turkish parents in Germany, you were Turkish. This Turkish citizen, who never lived anywhere but in Germany, would not benefit from representations made by the German government.
Similarly, a UK resident refugee or asylum seeker, even with indefinite leave to remain, who may be detained abroad (Guantanamo or not, this applies to any situation really) will not be protected by the UK government. Needless to say they're highly unlikely to be protected by the government of the country they fled, although I'm never against being surprised.

Effectively, this is an equalities issue, as status and particularly citizenship interfere with equality of treatment of the individual. A very serious matter.

I would like to put that to Tom Harris MP (who in fact sent me a Christmas card, thus wasting taxpayers money in my view) who publicly opposes the right of those given asylum in the UK to obtain a British passport. His argument is that he cannot understand why they would want to travel to their country of origin if they had to flee it, ignoring the issue of the protection British citizenship does in fact give and the very natural urge to visit family members after years of being apart and imposed restrictions to freedom of movement.
As long as the UK government, or any other government, fails to protect those usually resident on their territory, citizenship is in fact the only real alternative. A British or other passport is a very real tool for protection, it's not about travel or other petty issues.

Yet it is still a lottery. Even those with indefinite leave to remain have experienced difficulties in applying for citizenship, and even within one family, one person may be eligible while another person isn't. The reasons for this are beyond me, but I'm sure an immigration lawyer would be able to come up with an explanation. In real terms, though, it's another injustice, creating artificial differences between people who are effectively in the same boat.

Zahra Byansi and her two children were detained yesterday and the 17th January has been set as their removal date to Uganda.

For anyone who knows Zahra or her children, this is a shock. They've been detained before and now it's happening again. This time, it wasn't a dawn raid. Instead, when they went to the immigration office in Glasgow to sign on (which you have to do to get benefits, but which also should be an alternative measure to detention - if you are signing on regularly, you can't possibly be an absconder) they were simply held and taken to Dungavel. No goodbyes, no belongings, just gone.

I have only known Zahra and her younger son briefly. Like many others who have had the luck of knowing her, she has made a such a strong and lasting impression on me. Apart from anything else, her removal from the UK will be such a great loss. Her spirit, her life, her unflinching concern for fellow human beings should be an example to us all.

But let's not forget that she has actually just lodged a new asylum claim with new evidence, and this claim should now be considered, rather than her being removed to life threatening danger. She should not be detained. And children must not be detained anyway.

Please write to the Immigration Minister, bombard the Home Office with faxes and just do something to make the impossible happen, to let Zahra and her sons stay.

Please.

 

Let's have a good old rant about Ryanair.

It's been looming. No, it's not the fact that the pilots can't land in storms. I forgive them that and take it as a challenge to learn how to control my fear of flying. It's more an attitude and trickster thing that gets me going.

The problem is that you can't expect customer service or even a smile from the cheapest of cheap airlines. Those would cost money, so take off the make-up and friendly faces and get on with it. I can do that - to a certain extent.

Moan number 1:
Tricksing money makers. First, they introduce a fee for checking luggage into the hold. That actually means that for each piece of luggage you now have to pay for the service of it being transported. What with hand luggage security and all that there is no choice but. What is more, it's per item, and per flight. So if you happen to have to book two legs to get to your destination, you pay twice.

Next ingenious idea Ryanair had was to reduce the baggage allowance (that's the allowance of the item you already have to pay for, mind) from 20kg to 15kg. Other airlines who have a limit of 20kg let you through with up to 25kg without a blink, you pay if you are seriously over the limit. Not so with Ryanair. One kg over, and you pay. More than it would cost to send a parcel of the same weight. If you happen to travel with a good old suitcase, there is no chance you will not have to pay those £6 per kg.

We all know Ryanair doesn't assign seats and that you have to storm the plane like your average train at rush hour. Fair enough, at least so far you will have a seat somewhere, so I don't mind and so far I never actually had to sit away from my travel companion. Priority boarding seemed fair enough for those needing some help. Not so now. Priority boarding now has to be booked and paid for, thus discriminating against the infirm and those actually needing to sit together. I'm furious about the prospect of having to pay extra so I can sit with my beloved once we travel with baby, because there is no way we could even chance sitting separate from one another. Or worse even to be sitting separate from you child! And what would be the point in denying a wheelchair user or infirm person to get on the plane first and not hold up people, instead letting them struggle along with everyone else, resulting maybe even in delays to the flight?

Moan number 2:
Lack of linguistic skills. It's English only on Ryanair flights, no matter where they are coming from or going to. I guess we should be lucky they are not speaking Irish Gaelic to us, but believe it or not, there are actually people in Europe who are not able to speak or understand English. Tough on them, Ryanair says, if you can't check in in English, get someone to interpret for you or bugger off. Mobile phones will be left on during the flight and generally the passenger will be made to feel stupid for not having been born in an English speaking country.

Moan number 3:
Ryanair has no problem diverting flights and informing people so late that the arrangements for pickup from those airports in the middle of nowhere cannot be amended. It so happened to friends of mine who were landed with a diversion, a 6 hour bus journey and the inconvenience of their kind relative picking them up having to undergo four two-hour trips at either end of the night to enable them to get home at all. No complaints possible, you've signed away your life and if a 4 hour flight suddenly takes 24 hours they care sweet nothing about your wellbeing.

Moan number 4:
The seats are narrow and there is no net for any essential in flight items (such as a book, a drink, a magazine...). So you either balance your whole bag underneath your seat or give in.

Moan number 5:
Constant prize draws. Try sleeping on a Ryanair flight. Or listening to your music. It's impossible. One prize draw hunts the next, constant noise pollution of the worst kind. I've also heard that the fabulous prize of a free flight means that you have to book on specific routes in very narrow time windows, midweek only, and still have to pay tax. Not quite what I would call a free flight.

Of course, these are only the moans from a passenger. Mother nature surely has more to say. For my part, I'm truly sick of Ryanair and will do my utmost to avoid them even if that means paying more and having more hassle getting to an airport. The two reasons that have so far made me choose Ryanair are simple: They are always cheaper in spite of it all, they offer direct flights for most of my purposes, and Prestwick airport is so bloody convenient to get to by public transport. If only First Scotrail got their act together and provided a rail link to both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, a major step towards sidestepping Ryanair would be in sight.

The hassle of getting to the two major Scottish airports may be worth it though. Ryanair have overstepped a few lines recently and hopefully other punters will vote with their feet too.

I'm a hormonal time bomb. All my worries about 7 weeks of work left before day one of maternity leave have evapourated - work is great, energises, is fun and all that. Lunch breaks are for preparing that hospital bag bit by bit, and evenings turn out the nesting behaviour. It's fun yet odd, strong feelings about everything and an inability to keep my mind off whatever it is on at the moment.

So, for the weekend, there is the urge to rearrange the flat and make space for baby.
Today, I've bought the first pack of nappies.
Saturday I will have a look at prams.
At tea break, I browse pregnancy forums.
I've even taken to splashing in swimming pools, in the absence of yoga classes with spaces in them, inability to cycle or run and an increasing sore back when walking long distances.

In between though, I'm very happy to be at work and organise exciting stuff that has sweet nothing to do with bumps. Quite a nice combination really. I'll miss work when I'm on maternity leave.

I'm an auntie!

Nothing beats the amazement of holding a one day old baby in your arms and wondering how on earth it came out ready to roll from the belly of my sister in law. And even more amazing that my big big bump hosts another one of them. Nephew, meet your cousin cubling, kicking hard to welcome you into this stormy world.

With all the toing and froing, overdue dates, Christmas, family from different places and going to different places, there hasn't been much time for posting. More than that, I've entered a stage of hibernation and pregnancy induced lethargy, in an attempt to manage the forthcoming 7 weeks and 1 day of work before my maternity leave starts. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it's getting harder with interrupted sleep, heavy legs, big bump and a cubling that constantly reminds me of its presence. There is a concern that it will be hard to concentrate on my work, and that the pressure to complete pieces of work before I go on leave will needlessly stress me out. While so far, pregnancy has treated me kindly (if I am to ignore my spotty back, which is anything but kind), and there is no reason to believe that I won't be fit enought to work right up to my due dates, the though of it frightens me because at the end of the day, I have no idea how I will feel in 7 weeks, 2 weeks, or even tomorrow. I have simply not been here before.

The festive days and 10 days of holiday have also brough home to me that I can easily entertain myself with hypnobirthing practices, watching nature programmes on telly, walking dogs, reading expectant mums' forums, visiting people, knitting, sewing and planning for the new life to be born. I'm ashamed of myself that I haven't even managed to read or do serious exercise, or in fact post to my blog. Days are short and it's getting harder to motivated my bumpy self to do sensible stuff.

In this spirit, I'm off to watch some telly to prepare for my last day of freedom. Nighty night!