An asylum seeker says she was sent to hospital as a result of being moved to five detention centres in the space of six days. Christine Josee Mbuta Kibikula, 47, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2017 due to her opposition to the government and lived in Swansea until 2020 when she was moved to Roath, Cardiff, by the National Asylum Support Service.
Ms Kibikula fled the Democratic Republic of Congo as the country is politically turbulent, with certain regions recognised as "unstable" by the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. People living there who oppose the government are particularly at risk and Ms Kibikula worked in a prison where many of the country's political prisoners were held. After she opposed the poor treatment of the political prisoners and refused to carry out inhumane acts, Ms Kibikula was helped to escape to the UK by an agent from MONUSCO, which is a United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ms Kibikula is a mother of two and has said she is at high risk if she is deported. She explained that her twenty-year-old son has been moved to a secret location as the secret service police wanted to arrest him due to his connection to his mother. Her youngest son is nine and still lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo with her sister and Ms Kibikula said if she returns she would face imprisonment.
