This is urgent, and I can only ask everyone who reads this to copy the text of the letter below, change it if you like, and fax it to the Home Secretary. I know Rahila, she is a victim of the asylum process. Her claim should never have been refused. If ever someone needs protection, she does, and I fear for her life if she is to be returned to Pakistan on Monday.

Please please help.

The Secretary to the Borders and Immigration Agency Board

Rt Hon Jacqui Smith
Borders and Immigration Agency
Apollo House
36 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR9 3RR

-by fax: 0207035 4745-

URGENT

06^th December 2007

Re: Rahila Azam and her 4 children, Home Office reference number: A1346141

Dear Home Secretary,

Please allow me to bring to your attention this urgent matter. Rahila Azam and her four children (6 years, and three under 5) have been refused asylum on grounds of credibility and are scheduled to be removed to Pakistan on Monday, 10^th December, at 21:00 hrs, flight PK786.

I strongly urge you not to let this removal go ahead as I am severely concerned for her safety if she is to be returned to Pakistan. She has suffered severe forms of domestic violence and neither her own family nor the government of her country was able to provide protection. If she is returned, she and her children are most certainly going to be subjected to severe bodily harm or worse.

I understand that her claim was refused on grounds of credibility. It is always difficult to evidence domestic violence and the lack of protection in one’s own country, however, Rahila Azam is a very quiet, humble and extremely shy person who rather understates the suffering she has experienced. She would never have chosen to leave her family and country, leaving behind another two children, if there was any way she could have been adequately protected in her own country.

Both she and her six year old daughter suffer from serious medical conditions which are currently treated in the UK. A removal at this point would harm both their health.

Rahila Azam and her four children are in urgent need of protection. Please do not remove her to Pakistan.