The campaigns for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers who have fled from Burundi. The case of Alvin G.
After the successful outcome of the case of Annociate Ningaparitse, a Burundi woman who was granted permission to remain permanently in the UK, (thus escaping deportation which would have seriously endangered her life due to the ethnic conflict still rife in her homeland) EveryOne Group took up the case of Alvin G, a young man from the same tormented country who found himself in a similar delicate situation.
We will soon be publishing a summary of Alvin G’s case, in the hope that we will again be able to confirm the granting of asylum - something that now appears very likely. At the same time EveryOne sent a dossier on the situation in Burundi to the UK Government with the aim of showing, through documents, witness accounts and press reports, how members of ethnic and social minorities are facing serious danger in the Republic of Burundi.
Because of this, we asked the British Home Office to avoid deporting asylum seekers not only back to Congo and Rwanda, but also back to Burundi (which the British authorities had until recently considered a safe destination for deported refugees). We received a letter from the Home Office yesterday, assuring us that after the presentation of the EveryOne dossier the case of Alvin G. and the delicate situation of refugees from Burundi will be carefully re-examined in Great Britain, in order to prevent a violation of the Geneva Convention.
Alvin G. was called in to talk to the authorities and is now awaiting a positive outcome to his request for asylum. This result is also thanks to the diplomatic efforts of staff from the British Embassy in Rome whose vocation where human rights is concerned has been testified by the position they have taken up in the past. Their contribution has helped to prevent a tragic fate for refugees seeking asylum in the UK - people who risked serious persecution had they been deported back to their own countries. The most well-known cases are the ones EveryOne Group has been involved in, like those of Pegah Emambakhsh and Mehdi Kazemi.
These campaigns have been fundamental for arriving at the EU Parliament Resolution of January 31st, 2008 on the Iran question; the EU Parliament Resolution of March 13th, 2008 on the case of Mehdi Kazemi; and at the proposal for a moratorium – through the United Nations – for the decriminalization of homosexuality throughout the world, as well as an improvement in the British and European laws where the rights of refugees and asylum seekers are concerned.
Gruppo EveryOne
Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 - (+ 39) 331-3585406
