Ireland: Letter to UK Prime Minister from Ireland Friends of Falun Gong

(Clearwisdom.net)

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you as a representative of the Friends of Falun Gong in Ireland to express our extreme concern for the safety of Ms. Lili Lin and her unborn child. Lili Lin is due to be deported back to China on 7th March next.

Lili Lin is a Falun Gong practitioner. She is married to a fellow Falun Gong practitioner, Jinfei Zhang, who is a PhD. student at Liverpool University, and she is now 60 days pregnant. The fact that Lili Lin is a Falun Gong practitioner is well known, in part because her husband's name appears in Falun Gong leaflets and on their website. She herself has frequently been to the Chinese Embassy in London and to the Chinese Consulate in Manchester to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that is occurring on an ongoing basis in China.

It is an undoubted fact that the Chinese authorities will be aware of Lili Lin's status as a Falun Gong practitioner. It is also an undoubted fact that on return to China, Lili Lin will be liable to arrest, detention, and torture in a labor camp. The fact that this is happening in China to Falun Gong practitioners on a regular basis is extremely well documented. As has been admitted by Chinese officials, a minimum of 1,600 practitioners have died as a result of this torture, and the real figure is certainly much higher.

To read what is happening to Falun Gong practitioners in detention centers and labor camps is extremely harrowing. To hear somebody recounting their experiences of such torture first hand is doubly so. I have heard first hand Irish practitioner Zhao Ming describe his experiences during his 22 months of detention without trial in a Chinese labor camp for practicing Falun Gong. As somebody who is also a long-time member of Amnesty International, I can honestly say that the torture which he and other Falun Gong members have been exposed to is as severe as any experienced by the victims of torture anywhere in the world at any time.

Lili Lin applied for asylum in the UK but was turned down (Home Office reference number LI053356). She informed the Home Office of a change of address, but the letter of refusal was sent to her old address, and did not reach her until it was too late for her to appeal. I am asking you, on behalf of all the Falun Gong practitioners here in Ireland, to reconsider her request for humanitarian leave to remain in the UK. I must also remind you that to return Lili Lin to the detention and torture she would face in China is contrary to the non-refoulement clause in both the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Although I am writing this letter on behalf of Friends of Falun Gong in Ireland, I also wish to make a personal appeal to you in this matter, since I am a UK citizen living here in Ireland. I do not wish to discover that my government has returned a pregnant woman to a country where she is likely to be tortured. I hope that you will listen to this appeal, and that you will re-consider Lili Lin's case before it is too late.

Yours sincerely,

[name omitted]

http://clearharmony.net/articles/200303/10728.html