Cheer up Precious with a card

  

Precious Mhango,  the little Glaswegian girl I blogged about here  is pretty  low   after being incarcerated in Yarlswood Detention Centre for almost a  fortnight.     Anne MacLaughlin would like us to drop her a wee line. Here is Anne's update on   Precious and her mum  Florence.

Something you can do for Precious

To members of URGENT ACTION: Release Florence and Precious Mhango from Detention!!

Anne McLaughlin December 7 at 7:40pm Reply

Dear All

There's been no news today and it looks like the judge will decide tomorrow - unless Alan Johnson agrees to intervene. And who knows, maybe he's already done that. Time will tell.

Meantime, the politics and campaigning aside, I want to ask you to do something for Precious.

I don't want to go into too much detail because we're talking about a wee girl's feelings and it hurts me to think that in order to try and save her we've had to put her in the public eye so much when she's really quite a shy wee girl. I can tell you that she's not doing too great right now. Put it this way, her frame of mind is not what a ten year old's should be (I am clearly understating it) and I'm very worried about her.

Some of you have asked about sending gifts and you can do that if you like (although you can't send food) but what I'm going to suggest (and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier) is that we all send her and her mum a wee card just to say hello and let them know we're thinking of them.

Funny cards, cute cards, religious cards - any of them will appeal to Precious. And maybe just tell her a bit about yourself eg if you have a child her age, if you ARE her age, if you just want her to know that you're part of the campaign to get her home to Glasgow. 

I think she's feeling a little bit isolated. I speak to her mum every day and Precious some days and she's managed to get a couple of calls with her best friend Maria, but I think she would benefit tremendously from hearing from the outside world. She's been locked up for nearly 3 weeks and it's taking its toll.

You can send cards to:

Florence and Precious Mhango

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Twinwoods Road

Clapham

Bedfordshire

MK41 6HL

There is an outside chance that they may only be there for a day or two more but PLEASE don't let that stop you because we have no way of knowing and she really needs something to boost her now.

Thank you.

Anne

Comments

[Claire]

This policy of detaining families is really unsavoury. It is very hard for families to abscond and evade the authorities, and it is very easy to catch up with them if they do abscond and remain in the UK. I don't know if the Mhango family qualify for asylum or not. There is a possibility that they may go home, and I hope that those who are in contact with Precious are helping to prepare her for the worse case scenario, and are trying to make contact with relevant relatives (on the mother's side) and NGOs to make sure that, if they are sent back, the best effort has been made to protection them against the harm they claim they are at risk of.