CALL TO ACTION - Osime Brown

Osime Brown

URGENT CALL TO ACTION (UPDATED OCTOBER 2020)

WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED TO ENSURE THAT OSIME HAS BEEN RELEASED TO THE CARE OF HIS FAMILY AND IS HOME SAFELY. HOWEVER, HIS DEPORTATION ORDER STILL STANDS, AND HE COULD BE DEPORTED AT ANY TIME.

Please, as a priority, get in touch with your MP: ask them to advocate for Osime’s case and add their signature to the early day motion in Parliament if they haven’t already (this is a motion tabled by Members of Parliament that formally calls for debate on an issue)

Please also contact the Home Office directly - you can find information on how to do this further down. If you live outside the UK, please scroll down to contact the Home Office.

Contacting your MP

Go here and type in your postcode: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Your MP should now come up, and you can click on their name to find out their contact details.

You can then check to see whether your MP has added their signature to the early day motion in Parliament here: https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/57531/justice-for-osime-brown.

There are two email templates below: one for MPs who haven’t signed the early day motion, and one for those who already have. Please follow the instructions with the template that fits your MP (and whether they have signed the motion).

Copy the template. If you would rather send an email, open your emails, start a new email and paste the template into the email. If you would rather send a letter, open a word document and paste the template onto the document.

There are bits that you will need to change (your MP’s name and your constituency - these can be found on the website where you found your MPs contact details - your name, your postcode and your phone number). I’ve highlighted these bits in yellow.

You might also want to add a few lines of your own, to personalise it, particularly if you are autistic and would like to share your experiences of why this situation, which would be terrible for anyone, is particularly terrible for an autistic person.

Then send the email to your MP’s email address with the subject line: URGENT - please save Osime Brown. Or, you can print the document and send it to your MP’s address.

EMAIL TEMPLATE FOR MPs WHO HAVEN’T SIGNED THE EARLY DAY MOTION

Dear [MP’s name]

I am living in [your constituency] and I want to ask you to help Osime Brown: a young Black autistic man with high support needs, who is now facing imminent deportation to a country that he left at four years old and where he has no family and no support.

Osime is autistic, dyslexic, learning disabled and suffering from severe PTSD from his time in care and in prison. He also suffers from a heart condition that has required several surgeries. Despite a friend of the victim testifying that Osime was not directly involved in the crime, he was eventually sentenced to five years in prison under the now unlawful joint enterprise law - although he is now home, he bears hundreds of scars on his body from self harming.

He is now facing deportation to Jamaica, a country that he left at four years old and has never been back to. When told that they were planning to deport him, Osime asked his mother which bus he would have to catch from Jamaica to get home. He does not understand what deportation means, and there is no one to support him in Jamaica. As Joan, his mother, says: ‘if they deport him, he’ll die.’

I am asking you, as my MP, to step in and help rescue this young man from a death sentence. 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to save him from deportation. You can find out more about his case here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/deportation-autistic-man-jamaica-osime-brown-home-office-b802158.html

We cannot let this young man die. Please will you help me, as an autistic constituent [You can change this if you are not autistic], by adding your name to the early day motion and pushing the Home Office and the Home Secretary to revoke the deportation order against Osime: https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/57531/justice-for-osime-brown.

Osime is disabled. He is vulnerable. He has been failed by the services and people that were supposed to protect him. He has been harshly and wrongfully imprisoned. He is traumatised and suffers from physical disabilities as a result of that trauma. Now he faces being torn away from everything he knows and loves.

We can’t let that happen. Osime’s case is an indictment of the racist and ableist systems that autistic people of colour must face every day. I am urging you to stand up against this injustice and save the life of this young man.

Please stand with Osime Brown, and your autistic constituents, in righting this terrible wrong.

Kind regards,

[your first name and surname]

[your postcode]

[your phone number]

EMAIL TEMPLATE FOR MPs WHO HAVE SIGNED THE EARLY DAY MOTION

Dear [MP’s name]

I am living in [your constituency], and I want to ask you to help Osime Brown: a young Black autistic man with high support needs, who is now facing imminent deportation to a country that he left at four years old and where he has no family and no support.

I’m incredibly grateful to see that you have added your signature to the early day motion on Osime’s case, but we must keep fighting - we cannot let this young man die. Please will you help me, as an autistic constituent [You can change this if you are not autistic], by continuing to push the Home Office and the Home Secretary to revoke the deportation order against Osime.

Please continue to stand with Osime Brown, and your autistic constituents, in righting this terrible wrong.

Kind regards,

[your first name and surname]

[your postcode]

[your phone number]

Some MPs won’t respond to emails or letters unless they contain your phone number. If you can’t speak on the phone, include your phone number but also add a sentence to let them know.

When you look up your MPs contact details, you might also be able to find your MPs social media pages. If you would prefer to, you can use this template to send them a message on that platform.

You can also send an email to the Home Office or the Shadow Minister for Immigration directly (please see below).

Contacting the Home Office

If you live outside the UK, you won’t have an MP to contact. However, you can still help.

You can get in touch with the Home Office directly on this email address: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

You can also do this if you live in the UK, as well as contacting your MP (see above).

Copy the template below. Open your emails, start a new email and paste the template into the email.

There are bits that you will need to change. I’ve highlighted these bits in yellow.

Then send to the Home Office email address with the subject line: URGENT - please stop the deportation of Osime Brown.

EMAIL TEMPLATE

Dear Priti Patel (Secretary of State for the Home Department),

I want to ask you to help Osime Brown: a young Black autistic man with high support needs, who is now facing imminent deportation to a country that he left at four years old and where he has no family and no support.

I am asking you, as Secretary of State for the Home Department, to step in and help rescue this young man from a death sentence. 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to save him from deportation, and dozens of MPs have signed the early day motion calling for justice and compassion in Osime’s case. You can find out more about his case here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/deportation-autistic-man-jamaica-osime-brown-home-office-b802158.html

We cannot let this young man die. Please will you work to revoke the deportation order against Osime.

Please stand with Osime Brown, and autistic people across the world, in righting this terrible wrong.

Kind regards,

[your first name and surname]

If you receive a response from anyone you have contacted about Osime’s case, please do let us know. You can get in touch with me at erin@queerlyautistic.com.