Dear Tony Lloyd,
As one of your constituents, I would like to arrange a meeting with you about the plight of refused Asylum Seekers both in Manchester, and the UK.
I am going to be living outside the Houses Of Parliament for 2 weeks from 29th September 2008 to the 12th October 2008 as a protest against the destitution of refused Asylum Seekers. I will be doing this with a friend (also called Ben) and we will be living as destitute Asylum Seekers, sleeping in tents at Parliament Square and eating the contents of a Red Cross food parcel each week.
To read more about our protest and campaign, please see our website: http://asylumstories.co.uk/protest/
I would like to meet you in your office at the Houses Of Parliament during the 2 week period I am living outside. I would also like to bring an asylum seeker with me to explain their situation.
I saw that on 22nd July 2008 you asked a question about the Independent Asylum Commission to the Secretary Of State, so it is clear that you care about this issue.
Please let me know when we can meet as soon as you can since the protest is rapidly approaching!
Yours sincerely,
Ben Gibbs
This letter was sent through WriteToThem.com
11:56 am on September 10th, 2008
The longterm effects of destitution and no means of self-support cannot be more graphically seen than in the life of a young girl at present gravely ill in a hospital in the North of England. Refused asylum after ill-treatment because of MDC affiliations,panicked into a ‘convenient’but disastrous relationship with another asylum seeker, forced to stay indoors for most of a 2 year period, eventually thrown out of the house when she became sick.
She is now being treated for TB [undiagnosed for fear of visiting the hospital sooner] Sadly her mental state of confusion and distress is severely compounding her problems. Had she been able to support herself this could have been a very different story…