Release International

At the end of last year the Home Office refused to grant Helen Berhane, the former Eritrean prisoner of faith, a short stay visa to visit the UK to speak at a number of churches.

Now MP Jeffrey Donaldson has sponsored an Early Day Motion (EDM 1531) calling on the Home Office to review this decision, and to issue Helen with a visa as a matter of urgency.

The EDM notes that Helen endured 'enormous suffering and persecution … whilst held prisoner in Eritrea in appalling conditions in a shipping container where she was tortured, abused and beaten because of her strong Christian faith' and that she 'desires to share with people in the UK a message of hope, peace and reconciliation'.

After her escape from Eritrea, Helen was granted asylum by the Danish Government in 2007 and has been free to travel to other European countries since then. Sadly, on a previous application to the UK Embassy there was confusion over travel documents relating to her asylum claim.

'I personally endorsed her application to visit the UK,' says Release CEO Andy Dipper, 'and was disappointed that her visa application was refused. We still hope she will be able to visit the UK to encourage the thousands of supporters who wrote to her while she was in prison in Eritrea. She is a very gracious woman and has an incredible message of hope and good news - despite how she has been treated.'

Please write to or email your MP, asking them to support this EDM 1531 and to raise Helen’s case with the Home Secretary. Find out the contact details for your MP at http://www.parliament.uk/about/contacting/mp/ or use the email form at http://www.writetothem.com/.

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