Catherine Ramos: A life dedicated to achieving justice for refugees

"I WAS frightened about going to the democratic republic of the Congo, but I had to see for myself what was happening to our clients after they had been deported from the UK," says Catherine Ramos from Middlesbrough. "None of my family knew I was going. I think my daughters would have stretched out in front of the plane to prevent me leaving, but I knew that I had to gather evidence for my reports to the Home Office, about the reality of what happens when refugees are sent back to the places they escaped from. The Congolese are lovely people and they were taking great risks by talking to me, yet they protected me wherever I went."

Sadly, what she saw and heard on her trip was as she expected. In fact, it was much worse.

Catherine Ramos has worked for many years as an interpreter and translator. She is fluent in many languages and one of her roles was to monitor what happened to refugees after they were refused asylum and removed from the UK. She is a trustee of Justice First, which supports people seeking safety in the UK, and she uses her skills to assist JF clients.

This monitoring and evidence gathering for her reports began in 2007 when she became involved in helping Congolese asylum seekers on Teesside. Her friend Willy, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC) had been refused refugee status.

"Willy called me to ask if I could help him with his application to Canada, as he had been accepted on the scheme of highly skilled workers. He had a wife and three boys who were at school in the UK," says Catherine. "A few days later the family were detained for removal. There was a big protest march, and a letter was taken to Stuart Bell, MP for Middlesbrough, by supporters on the march, but in 2007 the family were on a flight out of the country. As soon as Willy got back to DRC he was arrested and tortured, but managed to escape with the help of a human rights group. I travelled by plane, 40 minutes by car and 40 minutes walking, to find Willy's family. They were living in fear in a one roomed hut without a door. Willy had worked in the American embassy and his children had such potential, and they were reduced to this, not knowing if they would ever see their father again."

One of the paths walked by Catherine Ramos to find returnees who were in hiding following removal from UK

Catherine was born into a loving family in Middlesbrough. She is the eldest of five children. "My family is so important to me," she says. "We have chosen different paths and love and respect each other for being the people our parents have helped us become."

Her father and mother, Sheila and Joseph Nolan, had a strong sense of social injustice and helped people quietly and without fuss. Her father, along with his brother John, fought for people too, helping many in Teesside through getting the legislation changed on industrial deafness.

After attending local schools where she became fluent in French and Spanish, Catherine took Spanish and Latin American studies at university, also learning Portuguese. She took an exam to become a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and two further diplomas: Portuguese with a health option, and Spanish with a law option, so she could enter public service, and understand the workings of the courts.

She taught languages in local schools, and in companies where the employees were visiting different countries, and at Teesside and Durham universities. When her children were older she decided to learn Italian, so spent a month in a convent in Rome.

Catherine wanted to monitor what happened to refugee returnees and she began to gather evidence, tracing and monitoring many returnees and gathering their statements. These have been successfully used as evidence in the UK courts, as well as in Canada, Europe and New Zealand.

"The Home Office told me I had no qualifications for the level of work I was doing, and called me a volunteer, but I do have the qualifications, the language skills and I have worked in the crown court, magistrates court, and for shipping companies," she says. "I translate and interpret, and I filmed and recorded all my interviews with clients who had been sent back. I felt belittled by the Home Office for their attitude towards me."

Catherine has always tried to trace the refugees and asylum seekers who were removed, but some are still missing. She describes the suffering of Conglolese people who were returned to their country – beatings, rapes, imprisonment and torture, and separation from their families.

In 2012, she independently began to monitor 18 young men who had been brought to the UK as babies or young children, but had got in trouble with the law. This meant they had an automatic reversal of status; they were now classed as foreign national offenders, because of their criminal record. In most cases parents have status in the UK, but they don't have the money for citizenship for their children too.

The young men were arrested and deported, and as soon as they got off the plane they were arrested and put in prison. They were raised in England and so didn't speak the language, and they had no family to bring food to the prison, and no money for bribes. They were tortured, as they spoke English, and were suspected of being spies.

"These are mainly the people I am dealing with now," says Catherine."In this case the young men appealed to the British embassy who refused to help as they had no British ID. However, the evidence I gathered for them was accepted in court."

Despite being severely reprimanded by one of her daughters when she arrived back from DRC and being made to promise never to go there again, Catherine continues her work relentlessly, gathering her evidence, writing her reports, and supporting people who are in desperate need.

Kath Sainsbury, a colleague of Catherine's at Justice First, says: "Catherine's tenacity is awe-inspiring. Her campaign to achieve a fair outcome for those Congolese refugees who have been denied justice, has become her life's work. In a world where it has become acceptable to misrepresent the facts for political expediency, her patient pursuit of the truth fills me with hope."