Deportation Threat

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Writeback to 28 Middle Lane London N8 AS AN avid reader of Socialist Organiser, I have been very perturbed about the growing number of reports of racist deportation cases.

However, these incidents seemed far removed from me personally, until I came across the case of Shirley Graham.

I have been given permission by the Shirley Graham Defence Campaign Committee to quote from their broadsheet:

"Shirley Graham is convalescing at her home in Forest Gate, East London, after a minor abdominal operation. She lives in fear of being deported at any time.

"Shirley, a Jamaican by birth, has lived in Britain since 1974. She has left and entered the UK on several occasions with no trouble and had been given 'indefinite leave to enter' "In August this year, after a short trip abroad, Shirley was, without warning, detained at the airport and held for five days. She was only released after the intervention of a Law Centre.

'Representations were made to allow her to remain in Britain, but these were turned down without any reasons being given.

It appears that the Home Office cannot decide whether Shirley is here 'legally' or not, but they have held her on 'SUS'picion alone.

"While in detention, Shirley's diabetes and blood pressure deteriorated due to the interrogation by immigration officers and delay in giving her proper medical attention. Shirley has done nothing wrong, but is being treated like a criminal.

'But she has made her home here and worked as a nurse here for many years.

She has the right to stay.

'In the seven years that Shirley has lived here, she has maintained contact with the Home Office, informing them if any trap, and was nearly banned by the BBC because they mistook the word contraception for copulation, which they think is too risky.

And during the week when the rioting against che police was at its neign in the middle of July this year Ghosttown, a biting the charts.

The Specials, alongside a number of other famous groups, have also spoken on youth.

In an interview for Rock Against Racism, vocalist Terry Hall replied to the question 'Do you think Mrs changes in her circumstances, and now for no apparent reason her whole life has been disrupted.

"Could it be that she is no longer married? In June this year Shirley divorced Mr Graham, but surely black people are allowed to get divorced?

"Could it be because of was already married, and he hadn't told her. When Shirley came to England, she employed solicitors to legally annul her marriage. Surely it is not her fault if her first husband was a liar.

"It would seem that Shirley's only crime is that she is black. She is just one of the growing number of black and Asian women who are being threatened with deportation over the smallest of technicalities.

"Shirley's case now rests with the Home Secretary, who alone has the power to overrule the immigration officers' decision"

I asked one of the Defence Committee if the local Labour MP - Arthur Lewis - had been of help. I was informed that the Committee were 'afraid' of Lewis's past performances in other such Last Enduating the immigration laws' However, a letter outlining Shirley's case was sent to him. One quote sums up his reply: "I can find no trace of Shirley Graham, or her address"

The Committee picketed the Home Office on October 15, and a public meeting in Forest Gate on the 18th decided to step up the campaign, by petitions and by asking people to invite speakers from the Defence Committee to local trade union and Labour Party branches.

The working class of East London will unite to kick out the racist immigration laws of the capitalist class.

TOMMY MOSSOP, East London.

Thatcher can take all the blame? Has the government really left youth on responsible. It is her government who are making the decisions so they must take the blame for what is happening'.

The group, being a mixed one, is inherently antiracist. On numerous occasions they played for antiracist organisations and at anti-racist carnivals, including one they co-sponsored this summer in Coventry after growing racist attacks on Asians in the city.

For this, British Movement skins save them the name the pecials minus two', referr inR to the two

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comment on youth un- employment, was No.1 in

out and sung against the Tory government's attacks