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Deportation of Sakchai Makao (Mark II) - ** News Thread **


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Just so this is on the new thread for those who haven't checked it today

 

SHETLAND FOR SAKCHAI PUBLIC MEETING'

 

A public meeting will be held on Tuesday 13th June to show support for this campaign. It is to be held in THE CLICKIMIN BOWLS HALL where Tavish Scott and Davie Gardner are expected to be making speeches, there will be music and Satch's sister Uthai and his Mum will be travelling to Shetland for it. I urge everyone who wants Sakchai back here in Shetland to attend this important meeting! SPREAD THE WORD.

 

Thanks everyone, keep up this amazing work and see you Tuesday!

 

Forgot to mention that the hard copy of the petition looks to be well over the 2000 mark. Thank you everyone!

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I've just noticed that the e-petition is clocking 961 signatures so far. That's amazing! If you've not had the chance to sign a petition yet, get in there!

The paper petitions must have a substantial following by now, going by that figure.

 

Let's just hope that our elected leaders do what they are supposed to do and listen to the wishes of the people they are there to serve.

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What time does the meeting start?

 

Obviously we are now going to hold the rally of support on Tuesday. This will be in the Clickimin Centre Bowls Hall at 7pm. Utai will be there as will her and Satch's mum. PASS THE WORD!!!!!!

 

Hope this helps :)

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First of all can I thank everyone who has been in touch to express their support for Sakchai. I shall do my best to reply to them all over the next day or two and apologise for not having done so yet.

 

I spoke to his solicitor after her visit to him today so I know that he is now aware of the strength of feeling that there is in Shetland about this. To use her own words to me, "his face lit up".

 

I have been in constant contact with the Home Office today, in particular the office of Liam Byrne MP the immigration minister. It has not been a happy experience. The minister himself has not spoken to me and I am left with the feeling that his private office have spent the day stalling. I had the last conversation with them at 8.45pm. Apparently Liam Byrne can not be contacted. To say that that is incredible is something of an understatement. At the risk of sounding pompous I feel that the Home Office has treated me with less than the courtesy and consideration I would normally expect (and receive) from a government department.

 

I am, however, told that Liam Byrne is now taking "ownership" of the case and that he will meet me to brief me on Monday. I am not sure if being briefed means that I will finally get some answers to some pretty basic questions. I have some doubts but we shall see.

 

There are more detailed questions but the basic ones are :

 

Given that Sakchai has lived in Shetland since he was ten how can the IND state as a supporting reason for his deportation that he spent "his childhood and formative years in Thailand" so can expect to re-adjust to living there again?

 

What is there in Sakchai's personal circumstances that makes the IND think that he has to be kept in custody?

 

The Director with the IND responsible for reviewing Sakchai's case told me at 8am that as far as the second of these two questions is concerned it is their policy to detain everyone is Sakchai's position unless there are compelling reasons not to. Not quite guilty until proven innocent but not a kick in the pants off it.

 

She offered no explanation at all in the morning with regard to the first question but she clearly spent the whole day working on one because at 10pm she told me that the view they had reached was that nought to ten were your formative years.

 

What can you say about people like that? I guess we just have to hope that one day their space ship will come back and return them to their own people because they clearly don't belong on this planet.

 

James Johnston, as is reported elsewhere on the forum, is in Newcastle and I am in touch with the prison to try to get some of the rather bureaucratic rules waived to allow him and Uthai to visit Sakchai tomorrow. In fairness to the prison I should say that they have been as helpful to me as they can be and did go to some trouble to let Alexandra, his solicitor, visit him today.

 

As I say, I spoke to Alexandra this afternoon after she had been in to see Sakchai. She tells me that the appeal was being lodged this afternoon and that she will be able to apply for bail on Wednesday if he is still in prison at that time. She seems up beat about the prospects of success and generally strikes me as being capable and to know her subject.

 

I think that just about covers it for today. I am ashamed to say that I had been unaware of the Shetlink site until this week. It has made all the difference to this campaign. Well done to whoever is responsible for it. When I eventually get around to updating my website it is going right to the top of the links page!

 

Alistair Carmichael

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Hia,

 

Well done everybody for the hard work you are doing so far to help Sakchai! I'm currently based in Edinburgh at the moment and I am trying to do what I can to help Sakchai. I went to Brae High school with him and as many people can attest, he was one of the nicest people I knew there. I'm revolted by how badly this country is now treating him based on a single break of the law and his ethnic origin - he must be going through hell.

 

Is there anyone in or around Edinburgh who wants to do something to try and help him? Although immagration is not a devolved matter, I thought it might be an idea to hold some kind of peaceful protest outside the Holyrood parliment on Tuesday in tandem with the public meeting in Shetland to raise awareness to his campaign to the MSPs. They could at least start the debate against the Dawn Raids again and might be able to pass a message on to Westminster. I know there were some of his friends of his in Glasgow and Aberdeen, it wouldn't be possible to come down with some banners and tell his story?

 

Let me know if you are interested or if there are any other plans for something similar. My e-mail address is:

chrisjam82@gmail.com

 

Thanks everybody, I really hope we can get this put to rights. This has been a real wake up call to how intollerant this country has become.

 

Cheers,

Chris Jamieson.

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... as a lurker for a couple of month I have only registered today.

 

Due to the fact that we have had similar cases over here in Germany for which we have got help from all around the globe we have started our own campaign.

We have left information at some more or less important websites, German speaking forums about Scotland etc.

Our folks from www.schottlandportal.de will not sign the e-petition (due to various, very formal reasons) but we have started to address our deep concerns directly to Sir Peter Torry KCMG, the UK ambassador to Germany ... just to demonstrate that Shetland might be at the edge but not outsite this world ... :-)

 

Wolfgang

www.schottlandportal.de

http://northernisles.schottlandportal.de

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As a measure of reciprocated respect, anyone wishing to view a translated version of "islandhopper's" sites can do so by copying and pasting the URL's into an online translation service like Babel fish for example: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

You interest and support are greatly appreciated islandhopper, national boundaries are not physical barriers. Welcome!

 

Njugle

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Is there anyone in or around Edinburgh who wants to do something to try and help him?

 

Chris Jamieson:

 

I know a few Shetlanders in Edinburgh, lived there for a wee while myself. I'll email them copying your message as the subject body and will CC you on the email. I hope it helps!

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For Constituents

 

There are three ways you can contact Liam:

 

You can ring the office on 0121 789 7287 to speak to a member of the team, or make an appointment.

 

You can write to Liam at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

 

Or you can email Liam at byrnel@parliament.uk

 

Due to strict Parliamentary protocal, neither myself nor members of my staff in my constituency can act on behalf of anyone outside of the constituency.

 

http://www.liambyrne.co.uk/

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