Church fights to save asylum pair

AN Oldham church congregation has launched a campaign to stop the deportation of two destitute asylum seekers.

Both fear the consequences of being sent back to their own country and are being supported by Oldham’s Unitarian Chapel.

Abdoulaye Diabate, from the Ivory Coast, and Taha Ghasemi, from Iran, will be supported with letters, petitions and approaches to local MPs.

Abdoulaye fled the Ivory Coast after imprisonment and torture in 2006. His sister was caught up in the violence and raped. He does not know if she is still alive.

Taha is a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party who arrived in the United Kingdom in September, 2006, following his imprisonment and torture at the hands of Iranian police and the security forces.

He believes that as a known supporter of the Kurdish cause in Iran he faces immediate arrest and imprisonment should he be returned to Iran.

Both Abdoulaye and Taha are regular visitors to the Welcome Project for destitute asylum seekers held every Thursday at Oldham Baptist Church. A social event for asylum seekers and their families takes place at the Unitarian Chapel on the last Saturday of each month.

The Unitarian minister, the Rev Bob Pounder, said neither man has refugee status and both have to report to the UK Border Agency Centre in Salford regularly, never knowing when a visit could lead to deportation.

He said: “It is like Russian roulette. They have no resources or transport but turn up to comply with the law. We are in the early stages of the campaign and we are asking our own Unitarian general assembly to support us.”

He said Taha had been imprisoned and tortured in Iran and managed to evade police, but could not return home.