Story: Stuart Crosthwaite and Andrew Green
Naseh Ghafor’s lips were unstitched on 20 August, 43 days after he sewed them together and refused food in protest at the failure of his application for asylum. Near to death, he is now accepting small quantities of liquid and it is hoped he will recover from his ordeal.
Naseh is a 20 year old Iraqi Kurd who saw his father killed in front of him. His mother and two sisters disappeared, presumed dead. He fled to the UK and arrived in Burngreave along with many other Iraqi Kurds two years ago. He was so convinced that deportation back to Iraq will mean death for him that he was prepared to face death by starvation rather than return to a country where he has no family left.
Although Home Secretary and Brightside MP David Blunkett has assured Naseh that he will not be deported until Iraq is considered to be safe, Naseh and many other Kurdish asylum seekers fear that Iraq will never be safe for Kurds. A speaker from the Kurdish Community Centre explained to a packed meeting of over 100 people in Verdon Street Community Centre that Iraqi Kurds live homeless and in fear after 4,000 of their villages had been destroyed, or given to non- Kurdish supporters of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Such people now occupy the farm which belonged to Naseh’s father.
The organisation Human Rights Watch has warned of tension between returning Kurds and Arab settlers which ‘could soon explode into violence.’ Other speakers expressed their disgust at David Blunkett’s refusal to accept that deportation to Iraq means death to Naseh and many of Sheffield’s 2,000 Iraqi Kurds.
The Home Office will provide bed and board to people in Naseh’s position, as long as they agree to be deported. Naseh refuses to sign his own deportation order.
David Blunkett alleged that people supporting Naseh were encouraging asylum seekers who have applications turned down to think they can get round the process through self-harm. This has outraged people like Jean Wood, from Carwood, who has spent many hours at Naseh’s bedside. “I didn’t know about asylum seekers until recently,” Jean told the Verdon Street meeting on 15 August. “I will move heaven and earth to help you all,” she added before tears ended her speech.
Naseh’s decision to start taking liquids was greeted with relief when it was announced to a demonstration called to support him on 21 August. This followed a series of protests which started on 7 August when supporters blocked Burngreave Road for an hour. On Tuesday 17 August supporters again blocked rush hour traffic on Spital Hill, and on Saturday about 200 people marched from Ellesmere Green through Sheffield town centre to a rally outside the Town Hall.
Leading the protest, Sue Taylor of Sheffield Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers said she thought Naseh’s decision to end his hunger strike was due to his realisation of how many people cared about him. She stressed that the campaign is just beginning to prevent the deportation of Naseh and others who face death if they return to Iraq.