All Out for Tacko's Appeal Hearing
Thursday 15th November
Immigration Tribunal, Taylor House, 88 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4QU
Demonstrate 9am
Hearing 10am
Nearest tube stations: Angel (Northern Line) & Farringdon (Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines)
Tacko Mbengue is a leading activist in the Movement for Justice and one of Britain's most committed fighters for LGBT freedom, racial equality, free public education, and against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim bigotry. Like so many young men and women who come to Britain to escape persecution and oppression in other countries, he is deeply committed to preserve the democratic freedoms and rights that are now under attack in this country. He is a student at Newham College and has been a Movement for Justice speaker at university and college forums on the fight for LGBT & asylum rights. This year he was elected as LGBT representative on the NUS black students' committee.
Tacko is a 26-year old gay asylum seeker from Senegal. He has been in Britain since December 2008 and spent the first 18 months in prison and detention centres - where he became a leader in the fight against the racism of the UK Border Agency. He has been fighting for over two years for the right to live safely in Britain as a gay man and a victim of torture.
Tacko has not been granted asylum and has been forced to live under the constant threat of deportation because he is a prominent leader of the Movement for Justice and the struggle against the scapegoating of refugees and asylum seekers here in Britain.
Next Thursday, 15 November, Tacko has an appeal hearing against the UKBA's rejection of his claim for asylum and its cynically dishonest refusal to accept that he is gay.
On 15 November the movement that Tacko has done so much to inspire and build must be present in the courtroom. Each one of us in that room and demonstrating outside Taylor House is a living testimony to Tacko's right to asylum. Each one of us will be making it clear that our movement values leaders like Tacko and will not allow them to be torn from us.
