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 has been worryingly ill since July (he has a heart condition that has previously required two surgeries). Now he faces being torn away from everything he knows and loves.
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. He is currently serving a five year prison sentence. 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. He is in prison, and is self harming to the point that he has hundreds of scars on his body.
On 9th September 2020, this vulnerable young man received a letter stating that he will be held on release on October 7th and will be taken to a holding facility for 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 way he would have to walk to get home. There is no one to support him in Jamaica. As Joan, his mother, says: ‘if they deport him, he’ll die.’
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. Here is what you can do to help
- Contact your MP, The Home Office, The Home Secretary, and Shadow Minster for Immigration- Click here for a link to the relevant contact details and email templates.
- Sign the ‘Stop The Deportation Of Vulnerable Autistic Man Osime Brown!’ Here
- Donate to the Go fund me ‘Stop deportation of vulnerable man Osime Brown’ Here
- Share this story on social media, so more people can get invoovled and help spread the message further.
Osime’s life and saftey is at risk, if we all put in an effort to stop his deportation, we can save his life!
Sarah E Boon 