“Billy has been arrested in India”
With those few words my easy, carefree, happy, simple life was turned upside down.
Billy is my husband, and in 2013, while working as a Maritime Security Advisor, he and all 34 men onboard the MV Seaman Guard Ohio were arrested in India and sentenced to 5 years in prison. His crime? Legally working in the protection of seafarers all over the world.
Like I’m sure many of you would, if you were told a loved one has been arrested, I turned to the FCO (Foreign Office) for help. “Billy was innocent; his detention had to be a mistake...the FCO had to have a legal obligation to help!” I was right in everything but the latter – the British government have no legal obligation to help British citizens abroad.
For 4 and a half years, my innocent husband and 34 other innocent men languished in a prison cell in India. Billy was torn from his family, and he was denied access to phone calls home for the whole time he was in prison.
He was also denied medical treatment. He had no access to clean water for the first 6 months he was kept in prison, which resulted in hospitalisation on more than one occasion with cholera and dysentery.
He was denied the right to a fair trial - one hearing took place in the dead of night in the garden of a local judge. He was paraded around on the media like a show dog by the Indian police. He was humiliated.
But possibly, worst of all, he was abandoned by the very people that he dedicated his life to for 10 years as a soldier in the British Army - the British government.
For me, choosing to join this campaign wasn’t an easy decision. I have my husband home now. We got married last year - I’m officially Mrs Irving. We have two beautiful children. We are both back at work despite the hell we all endured for almost 5 years! We’ve come out the other end together as a family and are enjoying a normal life once again.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to throw myself back into that world that caused so much heartache and pain, a world that made me so extremely angry and sad. I’d have to face the press once again and answer uncomfortable questions. I asked myself if this was something I should do. I’ve got my family; I’ve got my happy ever after...was there really any point in dragging up the past?
But there is a point. The work the British government do for each individual in a precarious situation abroad is totally at their discretion. This means that not everyone’s rights are respected overseas and, as a consequence, thousands of Brits abroad are mistreated (some of them even tortured) on a daily basis with no institution to protect them... This is wrong. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, working abroad, enjoying retirement, on a family holiday or a gap year before uni. There is no law to guarantee YOUR rights are protected by the British government – YOUR government.
Thanks to those of you who followed my campaign, signed the petition and raised such huge awareness and media attention, Billy was released in Dec 2017. All charges were dropped, and he returned home. The power of public pressure is incredible. That’s what helped me get
my husband home and that is what will help make this campaign a success and put a law in place to protect British citizens abroad.
If this stopped just one family going through what we went through, then it would all be worth it. I and the families of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Jagtar Singh Johal, Andy Tsege and Matthew Hedges have the conviction that this campaign will do much more, though. We are speaking out on behalf of every British citizen’s rights. We want to the British government to have a legal obligation to help. For the FCO to be transparent about how it works, and to give peace of mind to British citizens abroad and their families that they will all be treated equally, and their lives valued.
I am no legal expert; I’ve not got a degree in politics and I don’t spend every bit of my spare time campaigning for human rights. I’m not pretending to know what law the British government should put in place. I’m simply saying that there should be a law to protect all British citizens abroad.
I can’t say for sure if there was a law when Billy was detained if it would have made an impact on the length of time he was held. However, I believe that it could’ve protected him from the mistreatment that he endured at the hands of an ally state – it would’ve definitely taken away from me the pressure of battling our own Government for Billy’s rights on top of battling a foreign one.
Your support is very important to us. Please can you help us by sharing my story in this video.
Thank you for standing by our campaign.
From,
Yvonne Irving
P.S. We are trying to collect the stories of people who have faced similar experiences. You can contact us in confidence on britishrightsabroadgroup@gmail.com