38 Degrees members stand up for Andy Tsege on his 60th birthday

This is a post written by Yemi Hailemariam who started the campaign to save her partner Andy Tsege.

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On the day that my partner Andy Tsege spent his 60th birthday in secret detention in Ethiopia his family, friends and supporters gathered to demand his release – more than 70,000 people joined our campaign, and many came to Downing Street to add their voice.

Andy never wanted a fuss on his birthday, but this was not a usual birthday.

Even though Andy is locked away from his family, we wanted it to be a celebration – so we had birthday cake and balloons outside Downing Street. The children from our kid’s school even came to sing happy birthday!

If Andy had been here, we would have celebrated at our home in London. But Downing Street was where we need to be on that day. With the help of Jeremy Corbyn MP and 70,000 people who joined our campaign, we delivered a strong message to David Cameron – you must act now to free Andy and bring him home to our family.

I want to thank everyone who has spoken out to defend Andy – everyone who signed the petition, everyone who spread the word on social media, and everyone who came to Downing Street to show their support.

We know that the UK government has tried to duck responsibility at every turn. But together we all made sure that there is no doubt – the government’s continued failure to help Andy is unacceptable. He is a British citizen, and David Cameron must act to bring him home.

Thank you so much for everything you have done to help our family – we have to keep up the pressure until Andy is freed, and every bit of support helps strengthen our cause.

Yemi