The Chowdhury Family
As a Think Quest challenge group, we decided on a visit to a local Asylum Centre in Liverpool. Meeting the Asylum Seekers was an emotional experience for all of us.
On arriving, we immediately felt their warmth towards us. We were lucky enough to meet an interview one Asylum Seeker. Her name was Jannatul, she was a mother of two struggling to cope with daily life. She fled Bangladesh with her husband and two children after living through in fear from the recent kidnapping of her children.
An average Asylum Seeker lives on £5.42 a day and cannot buy 'luxury' items such a toothpase or toothbrushes even though they are entitled to dental care.
Her children are settled in a local school and both are doing well. Jannatul has been moved around the country and her husband died in 2005 from a heart condition after his surgery had been postponed 3 times. Normally opperations are postponed to make room for heart surgery of this type. Jannatul wondered if her husbands death was the result of them being Asylum Seekers meaning that the surgery was not prioritised because of this. Despite these set backs, Jannatul and her children are a strong family unit.
Sunday 1st April 2007, Judgment day…
…well at least for Jannatul Chowdhury. On this day she will be sent back to her home in Bangladesh. The only problem with this is that she left her home almost six years ago to escape persecution from the leading political party there. Now, she is being sent back.
We have serious fears for Jannatuel, for one, the reason she fled was to save her children from torture and now, if she is sent back she might be putting her life on the line.
But our government has told Jannatul that she has not got an outstanding story and that she is in no danger. She clearly is, and we, as a Think Quest group, have started petitions and contacted newspapers. We even got onto a call in radio show and told listeners of how terrible and unbelievably unfair Jannatuel’s situation was. That was all in the space of a day... the 29th March 2007.
You can listen to our extensive interview with Jannatul by clicking the follwing link:
