This is an appeal through Amnesty International, it is an appeal from one human being to another, deportation should not mean death. Migration is not a crime, the system we live under means that on occasions migration is the only way to survive. Nor should you be punished for trying to seek a better life for you and your family under what is a very brutal and exploitive system, corporate capitalism.
Last October, my husband Jimmy Mubenga was put on a plane accompanied by three private security guards to be forcibly removed from the UK. We had lived in the UK for 16 years and our five children were born here.
Jimmy died during the removal process. I found out that his death was probably due to the dangerous and abusive techniques used to restrain him. Before he died, witnesses on the plane heard Jimmy cry out that the guards were going to kill him. No one should die like this. Please stop it from happening again
The guards are under investigation for alleged manslaughter and are currently on bail. I am left struggling to bring up our five children without a father.
I would not want anyone to have to go through what our family is suffering. Yet there have been many other reports of people being injured while being removed from the UK. If nothing is done it is only a matter of time before there is another death.
To prevent this, I ask that you write to Home Secretary Theresa May urging her to make the system more humane. This must include proper training of staff carrying out removals, independent monitoring, and making private companies more accountable.
Please take this action in memory of my husband, Jimmy Mubenga.
Thank you,
Adrienne Makenda Kambana (Jimmy Mubenga's widow)
