Despite this the UK Home Office is, shockingly, trying to force her onto a plane so they can deport her to Rwanda.

The Home Office has previously said that it would not send pregnant women to Rwanda under its new scheme. However, we have seen paperwork that shows they knew Delina was pregnant, but still served her with a letter saying she would sent to Rwanda.

This is an incredibly brutal example of the carelessness of the Rwanda plan, and the horrific human suffering that it causes.

As the interview reveals, Delina’s story prior to reaching the UK is harrowing enough. When she was three her father was killed by the Eritrean government, and her mother took her to live first in Sudan, and then Lebanon. Her mother is now also dead, and she has no other family. She came to the UK already pregnant in July this year.

When she made her claim for asylum Home Office staff knew she was pregnant, and organised her first scan. Later, they arranged for her to move to more comfortable rooms in her accommodation.

And yet, even though she was by now noticeably pregnant, the Home Office then served her with notice saying she would be deported to Rwanda.

Since then she has not slept, and her recent scans show her baby has stopped growing – probably because of Delina’s stress. The doctors current plan is to induce her in just under two weeks time.

Seeking to deport someone so soon after giving birth seems shocking by any standards.

“We have supported hundreds of refugees who have received Rwanda notices but this is the most egregious case yet,” our founder Clare Moseley says.

“The Government knows this woman is pregnant but have still seen fit to issue a letter threatening forced deportation to Rwanda. This case demonstrates the lack of compassion, cruelty and brutality at the heart of the Government’s Rwanda policy.

“Targeting a pregnant woman is disgusting.”

Names have been changed.

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Today I got talking to two friends called Naji (on the left) and Ali. Naji had a bike that he used to get around on, Ali walked with a crutch because he has a damaged leg.

“It was when he was trying to get into a truck,” Naji explained for him. “He fell into the road, and was hit by a car.”

Ali had basic medical treatment for the injury but it was clear he was still in pain. Naji helps to look after him now. They left Sudan together, and have travelled all this way in each other’s company, he said, dreaming of rejoining their families in the UK. They’re not going to split up or give up now.

It was a reminder of how dangerous life is for refugees here in Northern France. These two had made it through Libya, where another friend had died while being held captive. Then they’d crossed the sea to Italy, but even after surviving those risks, they still faced so much danger here, near the UK border. Their resilience and dignity in the face of the hostility and harm are always amazing.

We talked more together, watching as volunteers handed out hygiene packs. We gave out around 200 packs.

The really sad bit came at the end when Naji, thinking of the recent evictions carried out by the French police asked what the police in the UK are like. “Because here they are not so good. And in Sudan, not good.

“And in Rwanda I don’t think they would be good.”

It seemed appalling that two people who had been through so much now had to endure this extra threat just when they seemed so close to safety.

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Good news! We are pleased to report that the Divisional Court has granted our application for an adjournment of the Rwanda case until September.

However the Government has refused to rule out flights in the interim, before the lawfulness of the policy is determined by the courts.

We are currently working with more than 20 people who have been detained and issued with Rwanda notices since the last court case, and many of those from before remain detained, exhausted and alone, and terrified for what the future might bring. They have suffered some of the very worst things that can happen on this planet. They have appalling physical and mental scars, and now face the threat of further extreme trauma. Some have now been in detention more than six weeks and urgently need to be released.

The Rwanda plan is brutal. Given the more humane and effective options available is this really what we as a compassionate country want to do?

We have been overwhelmed by the public support we have received so far but it’s essential that we keep the pressure up. We still have only seven weeks until we will be in court to fight against this cruel plan. To see how you can help please go to care4calais.org/stop-Rwanda

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We urgently need to stop this brutal policy that will harm many innocent people. To find out how you can help, go to care4calais.org/stop-rwanda/

At the time of writing, 10.15am on Tuesday morning, there are seven refugees booked on today’s flight to Rwanda. At least five of them have indicators of being trafficked and/or tortured.

Yesterday in the Court of Appeal we heard that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees unequivocally believes the UK Government’s Rwanda policy to be unlawful.

We also heard that they do not believe Rwanda has the capacity to give people a fair hearing for their asylum claims.

However, yesterday’s hearing was not about the lawfulness of the policy. Yesterday’s hearing was about whether our government can deport people to Rwanda before the hearing takes place to determine whether or not the policy is lawful. This hearing will take place in July.

The court decided that it is possible to deport people in the meantime as, if is later found the policy is unlawful, anyone who was previously deported can be brought back to the UK.

The problem with this judgement is that ignores the reality on the ground.
We are talking about refugees. Victims who have suffered the worst things that can happen to human beings in this world. They have seen their families killed; they have suffered torture; they have been sold as slaves. They are scarred by these experiences, and exhausted from their journeys. Their families are sick with worry about them. And they are terrified for the future.

Flying such people to any distant and unfamiliar country, let alone one with a poor human rights record and an ongoing armed conflict, will cause extreme trauma.

Inflicting this trauma on people who are already traumatised by war and torture is so cruel it lies well outside the standards of behaviour we expect of today’s nations. To assume the victims can simply be brought home as if they were just inanimate packages is to think and act with a complete lack of human empathy. After this, what else is possible?

You have to wonder what the government officers who might bring people back would say to them. We’re sorry? Never mind?

And what too might they say to the families of these men we are putting through hell? Sorry we forcibly sent your son, who we knew to have been kidnapped, tortured and trafficked, to Rwanda?

In fact, it seems entirely possible that there will be no-one to apologise to.

Some refugees have said that they will kill themselves if they are sent to Rwanda.

How will we bring them back then?

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When Zoran was a young boy growing up in Iran, his mum and dad were murdered by the government for their political views. His grandfather raised him in a small, remote village where Zoran got no schooling. Bring Kurdish, Zoran was part of a persecuted minority with little chance of a job.

His parents’ deaths marked the start of years of unhappiness and depression for Zoran, and being isolated and persecuted in the village only made things worse. He knew he had to escape.

Aged just 16 he left home to search for a safe future with the chance of employment, and walked to Turkey with a friend. They smuggled themselves into a fruit lorry, and after three days’ travel they emerged in a town in southern England.

Zoran claimed asylum on the grounds of his Kurdish ethnicity, his political view, and his parents having been murdered for their politics. He also applied on health grounds, citing PTSD and depression caused by his parents’ deaths and his journey to the UK.
He was put into the care of a local authority and given a social worker, but his asylum claim was refused.

Fortunately he was given discretionary leave to remain in the UK as he was under 18; good news, but just imagine the fear and uncertainty this brought to someone who was still only a child.

Having nothing to go back to in Iran, Zoran tried hard to stay in the UK, where he had found safety. For several years he endured a series of claims, appeals and rejections. In 2017 his lawyer told him nothing else could be done.

But then he met Aiden, a Care4Calais volunteer with our Access Team. And Aiden refused to give up.

At first Aiden helped Zoran to lodge further claims, but these were rejected, and things took a downward turn. Zoran’s support funding was withdrawn, and he ended up sleeping in a disused shop, and scouring for food. He was desperate for money and support, and this took him down a path that included associations with local petty delinquents.

In 2018 he was given a small package to “look after.” When police raided a gathering of people Zoran was among, everybody in the gathering was taken into custody and Zoran’s package turned out to contain a very small amount of an illegal substance. Zoran was charged with possession of drugs.
Zoran called Aiden to collect him from the police station at 5am that morning. Aiden found him a criminal defence lawyer willing to work on legal aid, and when Zoran’s case went to Court, he was placed on probation.

The impact of the drugs conviction on the asylum claim now became a huge worry.
Zoran, still homeless, developed several serious mental health issues, and Mind and the local authority mental health team sorted out emergency housing and support for him.
To many people it might have been a lost cause, but not to Aiden.

Somehow, working with incredible dedication, he found another law firm willing to look at Zoran’s case. And the new firm saw a ray of hope.

Zoran’s case had been turned down partly because the Home Office argued that Zoran’s political views and any activity in Iran would be unknown to the Iranian authorities. However, the new firm spotted that Zoran had been involved in political activity in the UK since he arrived here.

Pictures of Zoran protesting outside the Iranian embassy were found on a friend’s social media, and the law firm argued that these pictures were in the public domain, so could easily be seen by the Iranian authorities. A judicial review was lodged, and fingers crossed.

After a few weeks, the Home Office said that if the application for a judicial review was withdrawn, they would reconsider Zoran’s application. Zoran and his lawyer accepted, and a few months later, he was granted leave to remain for five years.

It was nine years since he left his village. The relief was incredible. This man had grown from a boy into man while he struggled to make a future for himself. Now someone had at last listened to him, he could begin the rest of his life.

Around the same time his probation came to an end, and he became eligible for Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. Eventually, Zoran was assessed as eligible for UC and allocated housing paid for by Housing Benefit.

Towards the end of that year, a British friend of Zoran took him to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He has become engaged to a woman there, and is now planning to apply for permission to bring his soon-to-be wife to the UK.

You can only shudder to think what would have become of Zoran without Care4Calais. He would most likely have been left on the streets to become one of the statistics in Britain’s prison system, or he would have been removed from the UK. It took two years of fighting, and endless hours of hard work by Aiden to find lawyers who could take legal aid – and huge amounts of advice and knowledge from others in the Care4Calais team as Aiden liaised with Zoran’s probation officer, social worker and GP, the council, the DWP and the Red Cross.

We were so pleased that Zoran was finally listened to, and that the Home Office realised he did deserve our help. Aiden says it feels amazing to have helped.

“It’s one of the most satisfying things I’ve done with Care4Calais. Zoran is now starting his new life and we have remained friends. In fact he now interprets for Care4Calais volunteers helping recently arrived asylum seekers.

“He’s about the same age as my youngest daughter, and he often tells people I’m his dad. He’s been through an ordeal he did not deserve and to watch him come out the other side and grow is amazing. I can say, ‘we did that’; we helped with that, and it made a difference.”

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We’re taking the Government to court to stop dangerous push backs of flimsy boats in the Channel – and we need your support.

We’re proud to be bringing this claim alongside the PCS Union, who represent Border Force’s own officials. They’re aghast at the thought that they will be forced to implement such a cruel and inhumane policy.

Push backs are incredibly dangerous, and risk lives at sea. Following the recent horrific drownings of 27 people in the Channel, it is simply unthinkable that anything be done to risk further loss of life.

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Today 300 French police brutally evicted hundreds of refugees, including many families with young children, from the camp in Dunkirk.

Officers armed with riot shields surrounded the camp early on Tuesday morning. Surprised and alarmed, refugees had to pack their belongings hurriedly, fearful of tents being slashed and possessions taken.

Between 1000 and 1500 people were estimated to be living in the Dunkirk camp. As we reported on Sunday, living conditions have become atrocious, with overcrowding worsening the muddy ground, and the lack of shelter exposing tents to the wind.

Having endured life there, refugees were now bussed off with just about a hundred left. Care4Calais distributed tents to those people remaining.

It makes our hearts heavy to post the pictures here showing the Dunkirk site before and after the eviction. They serve as a stark reminder of cruel evictions sweeping France.

This truly was a surprise to us all. Not only are temperatures dropping, but the small amount of belongings these humans have – like their winter coats – have been lost, depriving them of protection against the cold.

How inhumane.

The eviction comes after two months when five refugees have died on the French-England border, and another five have gone missing while trying to cross the Channel. Less than two weeks ago, French police agreed to soften their treatment of refugees, persuading 72-year old French priest Philippe Demeestere to give up his hunger strike in protest at conditions in northern France.

Meanwhile French and English politicians have bickered over responsibility for the Channel crossing attempts, using refugees as pawns rather than acknowledging their desperation.

Looking at these images of Dunkirk, surely no one can doubt that desperation now. As winter approaches we are deeply concerned about conditions in France, but we are do all we can to help refugees cope.

We will be distributing coats and other supplies to those affected. Please consider donating the coat of a winter coat via the link in our bio.

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