Jahongir Sidikov escapes deportation - but for how long?
Craig reports back that Jahongir Sidikov, was mercifully not deported yesterday after offering passive resistance to those charged with putting him on the flight to Uzbekistan. Next time staff authorised and equipped to use force will be used.
Craig also voices his despair at the complete lack of interest, from MPs, officials and journalists about the whole state of affairs. There just doesn't seem to be any knowledge of just how repressive and dictatorial Uzbekistan has become, much worse by almost all accounts than it was during Soviet days. Unfortunately, Uzbekistan lacks marching Buddhist monks and charismatic, popular and well-known opposition leaders, or a ubiquitous tyrant that hate and anger can be directed towards like in Zimbabwe.
There is the spark of a campaign amongst other blogs and those commenting on Craig's site towards raising awareness of Sidikov's plight - Question That listing all those currently linking to Craig's postsfrom the MediaLens contact page and spreading the word. I'm personally unsure of the worth of contacting MPs; they can put down an early day motion and might try raising the issue in the Commons, but that often has little effect. More pressure will be put on the immigration service and Home Office if it gets widespread coverage in the media, which is why I favour personally getting in contact with the broads and ex-broads and making clear that there is real anger and dismay over the government deporting asylum seekers back to countries such as Uzbekistan. They haven't shown much interest so far, but if enough people do contact them they might just sit up and listen. I've taken some of these addresses from the MediaLens contact page:
Guardian
National news desk: national@guardian.co.uk
Alan Rusbridger, editor: alan.rusbridger@guardian.co.uk
Independent
National news desk: newseditor@independent.co.uk
Simon Kelner, editor s.kelner@independent.co.uk
Times
News desk: home.news@thetimes.co.uk
Telegraph
dtnews@telegraph.co.uk
If you do write, try to use your own words as generally they tend to dismiss mailings that are obvious carbon copies.
Craig also voices his despair at the complete lack of interest, from MPs, officials and journalists about the whole state of affairs. There just doesn't seem to be any knowledge of just how repressive and dictatorial Uzbekistan has become, much worse by almost all accounts than it was during Soviet days. Unfortunately, Uzbekistan lacks marching Buddhist monks and charismatic, popular and well-known opposition leaders, or a ubiquitous tyrant that hate and anger can be directed towards like in Zimbabwe.
There is the spark of a campaign amongst other blogs and those commenting on Craig's site towards raising awareness of Sidikov's plight - Question That listing all those currently linking to Craig's postsfrom the MediaLens contact page and spreading the word. I'm personally unsure of the worth of contacting MPs; they can put down an early day motion and might try raising the issue in the Commons, but that often has little effect. More pressure will be put on the immigration service and Home Office if it gets widespread coverage in the media, which is why I favour personally getting in contact with the broads and ex-broads and making clear that there is real anger and dismay over the government deporting asylum seekers back to countries such as Uzbekistan. They haven't shown much interest so far, but if enough people do contact them they might just sit up and listen. I've taken some of these addresses from the MediaLens contact page:
Guardian
National news desk: national@guardian.co.uk
Alan Rusbridger, editor: alan.rusbridger@guardian.co.uk
Independent
National news desk: newseditor@independent.co.uk
Simon Kelner, editor s.kelner@independent.co.uk
Times
News desk: home.news@thetimes.co.uk
Telegraph
dtnews@telegraph.co.uk
If you do write, try to use your own words as generally they tend to dismiss mailings that are obvious carbon copies.
Labels: asylum seekrs, Craig Murray, injustice, Jahongir Sidikov, Uzbekistan
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