How you can help Florence and Precious Mhango today. #florenceprecious

When?

5.30 pm Monday 19th July 2010

Where?

The top of the Buchanan Street, near the Donald Dewar statue, at the bottom of the stairs outside the Buchanan Galleries - if you can, bring a candle and some yellow ribbon for this humanitarian vigil.

And/Or


Twitter (using #florenceprecious) and the Blogosphere. Write a blog post, or some tweets in support of Florence and Precious and say why you think they should be allowed to stay in Glasgow through the day but particularly to come online at the time of the vigil. For more detailed information see Anne McLaughlin's blog here.

Why? - 5 Reasons Florence and Precious should stay in Glasgow

• If they are returned to Malawi, they will most likely be separated and 10 year old Precious will not be allowed to see her mother again.
• Precious is settled at school in Glasgow and is doing well there. She and her mother have long standing friends here and are part of the community where they live.
• Precious only speaks English and faces being separated from her mother and handed over to people she can't communicate with if deported.
• Precious has lived in this country since she was 3 years old. She has no memory of Malawi. She is safe and doing well where she is in Glasgow. If she is deported, her welfare will be severely compromised.
• People are worried about creating precedents in these situations - there can't be many people in this country in the same circumstances with such strong support from their communities behind them. This is an exceptional case.

Florence and Precious have been through an awful lot, including two spells of detention. For that reason, I think the best solution to their situation would be for the Home Secretary to use her discretion to grant them leave to remain outside the Immigration Rules. She could do this very quickly so that Florence and Precious can have peace of mind and security for the first time in a long time. The more public support we can generate for them today, the better. David Cameron's talking about community activism and people having more say about what happens in their area. It's clear that Florence and Precious' community wants them to stay - so why not let them?