Kate Osamor MP
Weekly Update – Friday 27th November 2020
The Government has announced that London will be in the new Tier 2 after lockdown ends on 2nd December next week. While some changes have been made, the restrictions in place will be very similar to those in place when we went into lockdown.
Tier 2 will mean;
- No mixing of households indoors, apart from support bubbles. Maximum of six outdoors.
- Pubs and Bars will be closed, unless operating as restaurants. Venues will close by 11pm.
- Retail, indoor leisure, entertainment and personal care venues will open with social distancing in place.
- Everybody should continue to work from home if possible.
- Places of worship will be open.
- Sport and Live performances will be allowed to take place with a maximum of 2000 people outdoors or 1000 indoors.
Despite the good news of multiple successful vaccine trials, the virus continues to spread while we wait for those vaccines to be rolled out. While the spread of the virus has slowed over recent weeks, the Government’s scientific advisors have warned that the Government’s 5 day Christmas ‘break’ from restrictions, in which three households can mix, is likely to see an increase in infections and deaths leading to a possible third lockdown in January.
It is therefore essential that we all continue to take those measures which are most effective at stopping the spread of the virus; washing our hands, social distancing and wearing masks. Hopefully in the new year, we can look forward to the beginning of the end of this pandemic and a more promising 2021.
The Government must consider sanctions against Nigerian officials
This week I spoke at a debate in Parliament to call on the Government to consider Magnitsky style targeted sanctions against Nigerian Government and Security officials, responsible for human rights abuses.
Through the End SARS protests, young Nigerians across the world called for an end to the brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squads in Nigeria who killed and tortured Nigerians for years. Although the Nigerian Government has now officially disbanded SARS, the brutality, corruption and killing in Nigeria’s security forces continues and the Nigerian Government has resorted to increasingly authoritarian measures to repress the protest movement, ending in the bloody Lekki Massacre on 20th October, which the Nigerian Government has since attempted to cover up.
Our Government has failed in its response to the violence in Nigeria. While other Governments and figures across the world have stood up for Nigerians and called on the Nigerian regime to stop killing peaceful protesters, ours has remained almost entirely silent. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has abdicated from the duty we have to call out human rights abuses wherever and whenever they occur and in doing so, has betrayed the large Nigerian diaspora population in the UK.
This needs to change. The Government must now listen to the evidence put to them during the debate this week and consider investigations against individuals in the Nigerian Government and security forces who could be guilty of terrible human rights abuses. Targeted Magnitsky style sanctions should then be applied to any individuals who are found to be responsible for human rights abuses. It’s time the UK Government does the right thing and stands in solidarity with Nigerians who are risking their lives every day for a new Nigeria.
I’m asking the Home Secretary to halt the planned mass deportation on 2nd December
This week I wrote to the Home Secretary asking her to urgently consider stopping the mass deportation of up to 50 individuals to Jamaica next Wednesday. I also urge airline chiefs to refuse to operate the flight.
Many of the supposed ‘foreign criminals’, who the Government plans to deport have lived in the UK since childhood and have children of their own who are British. The majority are being deported for minor criminal offences and if the flight goes ahead, more than 30 children will be left will be separated from a parent shortly before Christmas and in the middle of a pandemic. All but one of those who might be deported have also reported being at risk of violence if they return to Jamaica.
In addition to the moral abhorrence of ripping parents away from their children less than a month before Christmas, the deportation is also legally dubious. COVID-19 restrictions mean that the potential deportees, who are currently being detained, have had little or no access to legal representation and have been unable to make a case to the Home Office.
It couldn’t be clearer that the Government have learnt nothing from Windrush. Priti Patel’s blind pursuit of the Hostile Environment policy is again ripping apart families and destroying the lives of people who have spent the majority of their lives in the UK and consider it home.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.
Kind regards,
Kate Osamor MP