British government sends Ghanaian woman to her death

This video from Britain is called Political Rant #3: UK Government Deports Ama Sumani.

By Barry Mason:

Britain: Terminally ill Ghanaian woman deported and denied medical care

18 January 2008

Ama Sumani, a 39-year-old Ghanaian woman terminally ill with a malignant myeloma, was deported from Britain to Ghana on January 9. She was taken from the University Hospital, Cardiff, in Wales, where she was receiving dialysis treatment, as her kidneys were damaged by the myeloma. Five immigration officers put her on a flight from Heathrow to Ghana that day.

Ms. Sumani had first come to Britain in 2003; she enrolled as a student but was unable to finish the course and took a job. Taking employment contravened her student visa status. She flew to Ghana in 2005 to attend a memorial service for her late husband. On her return to Britain, her visa was revoked.

She became ill two years ago, and doctors say that without regular dialysis she has only weeks to live. A Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) spokesman claimed that “Part of our consideration when a person is removed is their fitness to travel and whether the necessary medical treatment is available in the country to which they are returning.”

Ms. Sumani attended hospital in Accra, the day after arriving in Ghana. According to reports by the BBC and Independent, the hospital in Accra will not provide treatment for her. The reports state British officials would provide funding for treatment for three months, but the hospital said that without funding for ongoing medical treatment, they would not be prepared to accept her as a patient.

Her lawyer Sara Changkee said: “It’s just so sad; her only future now is death.”

Annan Cato, Ghanaian High Commissioner in London, has made an appeal to the British government to allow Ms. Sumani to be returned to continue her treatment.

The treatment of the Ghanaian woman is one more example of the British government’s increasingly reactionary and punitive treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.

The Independent on January 2 highlighted the case of Adedoyin Fadairo, a three-year-old girl who has been threatened with deportation to America. The child was born in the US but has lived most of her life in London with her grandmother and has no family in America.

The girl’s 32-year-old mother is also threatened with deportation, in her case to Nigeria. She has been held in the Yarls Wood detention centre and has been separated from Adedoyin for 10 months. Adedoyin has a kidney condition but is not entitled to medical treatment.

Internet petition for Ama Sumani: here.

Update 27 January 2008: here.

PRESIDENT BARACK Obama said Africa’s future “is up to Africa” in a speech to Ghana’s parliament July 11, but he ignored the U.S. government’s own role in increasing poverty in the West African nation: here. And here.