| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
PETITION
Asylum Seekers (Reading)
6.11 pm
Jane Griffiths (Reading, East) (Lab): This petition has 717 signatures, collected from people attending churches in Reading and Woodley. It was prompted by concern about the legal advice received by young unaccompanied asylum seekers from former Yugoslavia. The legal advice given to a number of those asylum seekers by one solicitor working in Reading has resulted in their cases not being presented as they could and should have been.
I was fortunate enough to be able to raise the issue with the Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Mr. Leslie), in an Adjournment debate last month.
"To the House of Commons, the petition of the Rev. David Skinner, Harriet Townsend and the congregations of churches in East Reading declares that a profound injustice is occurring in Reading as disastrous legal representation results in young people in the asylum process being treated unfairly. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Minister of State for Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality at the Home Office to cease the forced return to Kosovo of young people who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a policy which is against the expressed request of the United Nations mission to Kosovo; and to meet church representatives from East Reading to discuss these matters."
ADJOURNMENT
| Index | Home Page |