Don’t let them deport the ahmadi family

DON’T LET THEM DEPORT THE AHMADI FAMILY
The Ahmadi children Seear 4 and Hadia 6 are currently being held prisoner in Harmondsworth detention centre awaiting deportation. They were snatched on a visit to their parents, Farid and Feriba, without warning and in defiance of a court order which required them to be in the care of family friends. The terrified children were seized on the personal order of David Blunkett who even defied a high court ruling to release them and continued to hold them, until he could get a judge to agree to keep them in detention.
The children are begging to go home with the family friends. They are terrified by the barbed wire and the guards and by seeing their visitors fingerprinted before they can enter the visiting room.
The family came to Britain in June 2001 having fled Afghanistan. They had spent 10 months in detention in Germany after being picked up on their way to Britain where relatives live. Feriba had two nervous breakdowns there after suffering racist abuse. In Afghanistan Farid had been tortured twice. The family fled after being buried in their bombed out home for hours with the bodies of Farid’s brother and sister.

“Last night my daughter just screamed in her sleep. My boy is very quiet. This is no place for adults, so what can it be like for children?”

Feriba Ahmadi after her children had been detained

They have settled in Lye, near Birmingham where their children were attending the local school. Feriba was training to be a nurse. If returned to Germany, they might be deported to Afghanistan—a far from safe place where women still have to wear the Burka and a car bomb killed 25 people on Friday The family want to remain in Britain because their family and friends are here. Britain is the only safe place the children have ever known.
The family sought sanctuary in the Ghausia Jamia Mosque in Lye when the Home Office started deportation proceedings. In the early hours of 25^th July police, in full riot gear, broke into the Mosque to detain the family. Family friends, caring for the children at the time, applied to the High Court for a wardship order. Blunkett has defied this to push through deportation without allowing psychological reports. He plans to deport them on Wednesday.
IT IS URGENT THAT THE HOME OFFICE ARE BOMBARDED WITH PROTESTS. PLEASE SEND THE FOLLOWING LETTER OR YOUR OWN, TO THE HOME OFFICE TODAY. GET TRADE UNION BRANCHES, ANTI DEPORTATION CAMPAIGNS, MOSQUES, CHURCHES ETC TO PROTEST.
Fax: David Blunkett 020 7273 3965 Beverley Hughes 020 7273 2043

To fax from the web go to www.tpc.int/sendfax.html and follow the instructions.
Please copy protests to the Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers: Email [e-mail]

Post CDAS, BCM Box 4289, London, WC1N 3XX phone [phone]

Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers: Urgent financial appeal

To challenge the Home Office in the High Court the campaign needs to raise £15,000. Please rush donations made payable to: ‘Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers’ marked Ahmadi family send to: CDAS, BCM Box 4289, London, WC1N 3XX

David Blunkett

Home Secretary

Home Office

Queen Annes Gate

London

SW11 9AT

Dear Home Secretary,

                                            Re Farid and Feriba Ahmadi and their children Seear and Hadia.

                            Port ref. DVE109238 - Home Office ref. A1117256

I am writing to ask you to urgently reconsider the decision to deport the Ahmadi Family to Germany.
As you will be aware this family have been traumatised by their experiences in Afghanistan, including being trapped under rubble for hours with the dead bodies of close relatives. The isolation and inhumane treatment they received in Germany has lead to the family feeling very desperate without any network of support, which this family needs. If they are to have any chance of recovery, which would allow them to lead a normal life, they need the support and friendship of their relatives and friends in the UK.
I understand that the British government has entered into an agreement with other European Union countries whereby the claim of an asylum seeker will only be examined in the first EU country they come to, unless there are compelling reasons for examination in a third country. Furthermore I also understand that you have ministerial powers to make exceptions in certain compelling cases and to give permission for the family of an individual to be allowed to remain safe in the UK on humanitarian and compassionate grounds outside of the Immigration Rules. I ask you to use those powers in the case of the Ahmadi family and to ease the suffering and torment they have already suffered.
I am also deeply shocked and concerned by the decision of the Immigration Department to detain the Ahmadi's two young children, Seear and Hadia. It seems that Home Office's determination to appear 'tough' have driven them to take a brutal position on the treatment and well being of children.
If you feel you cannot show compassion in this case and allow the Ahmadi's to remain, then I ask that you at least give a guarantee that no attempt will be made to deport the Ahmadis before their new legal representative is given a chance to present new evidence on their behalf. This seems the very least that any process of natural justice demands and I hope you will be able to give a reassurance that all the evidence will be considered before any removal takes place - and that political considerations will not be allowed to overrule justice.

I ask you to respond to this letter as a matter of urgency.

Yours Sincerely,