The Home Office have now cancelled plans to remove 14year old Meltem Avcil and her mother by private plane this morning according to the Avcil’s lawyers. The costs of deporting the Avcils by plane is believed to run into tens of thousands of pounds.
A high profile campaign to prevent the deportation appears to have won the family some time while the family’s lawyers submit further representations. However, plans appear to be being made to resume removal directions which were previously abandoned on Thursday 15 November 2007. No date has been set for the removal of the family.
Meltem Avcil and her mother were removed from Yarls wood and admitted to Bedford Hospital yesterday, after concerns were raised about her mental state by doctors from Medical Justice. Both remain under close guard despite never having absconded since they arrived in the UK. Meltem’s medical assessment by Medical Justice doctors highlights the psychological trauma she has suffered in Yarlswood detention centre for the past three months. The medical notes prepared by Dr Miriam Beaks, who assessed Meltem at Yarlswood on 18-11-07, state that:
“I am very concerned that Meltem seemed quite low and said that ‘in here I’m like a dead person… it’s all down from now’. She said she was missing her friends and was very upset that when they were arrested from home, Meltem had not been allowed to say goodbye…I was very concerned to see an entry in the Yarlswood health care notes on 23-10-07 stating that another detainee was approached by Meltem for suicide with her. On 26-10-07 Meltem cut herself and was taken to Bedford A&E and was seen by an A&E doctor… the doctor asked the detention officers to leave the room but they would not. The doctor stated that Meltem was increasingly frustrated at being kept away from her friends. Meltem was upset that while waiting to see the doctor in Bedford A&E the officer accompanying her asked her out loud so that other patients heard if she was enjoying her trip out of the Detention Centre. I asked Meltem why she cut herself and she said she felt there was no way out…Meltem has been in the UK for over six years … and is detained with her mother Cennet who is depressed and on anti depressants. Meltems mother sustained bruising and scratches to the wrists and under the left eye during an attempt at removal to Germany on 15-11-07. The scratches and bruising to the wrists and left eye were still present when I saw them… Meltem is clearly under a lot of stress being with a depressed mother which has clearly been exacerbated by witnessing her injuries on 15-11-07… Meltem is 14 tomorrow. Her birthday will highlight even further her positionand there is grave risk that she will feel even more hopeless. Given that she has self harmed before and reported as discussing suicide with another young detainee, I feel that she urgently requires assessment by a child psychiatrist”.
Robina Qureshi, Director, of campaign group Positive Action in Housing which assists refugee communities, said:
“We are very concerned about the psychological trauma that Meltem suffered as a result of being taken suddenly from her home in Doncaster at dawn and then locked up in Yarlswood for three months. Her trauma has been worsened by witnessing her mother being jumped on by security guards and then dragged off the tarmac onto a plane on November 15th. The political situation in turkey right now means that Meltem and her mother, Kurds, are in even greater danger of being persecuted if eventually returned there. The aim of our campaign is to get Meltem Avcil and her mother back to where they belong in Doncaster, and to stop any further attempts to remove them from the UK. Yarlswood is no place for Meltem, she should now be returned back to her home and community where she is sorely missed by her schoolfriends and neighbours. We are calling on the Childrens commissioner to step in and stop any further abuses of this child’s rights.”
Cards and messages of support can be sent to:
Meltem & Cennet Avcil
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust,
Kempston Road,
Bedford,
MK42 9DJ.
By Email
Please email: communications@bedfordhospital.nhs.uk
1 response so far ↓
Kick her out // November 22, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Yet another poor asylum seeker story which uses emotive language in which to pluck at our heart strings. But before I go on here is a little info on this so called sob story.
1) This family unit first applied for and were rejected for asylum by the German authorities.
2) European law dictates that they be returned to the country they first applied asylum in a case such as this
3) This family were initially put on a BA flight for Duss and caused such a scene they were removed, hence the private flight.
I personally would like to see everybody live where-ever they could. However The UK can only take in so many people. The figures that be stipulate that the UK removed far less failed asylum seekers in the past 3 months than any comparative period for the past 5 years. Now it’s ok calling me heartless, a racist or even just a twat. But the fact remains the UK is currently undergoing a huge gravitation to the far right simply because of our failed immigration policies. Now I felt safer walking the streets in the 70s,80s and 90s than I do now. Until we sort out the mess this country is in, I say deport as many failed asylum seekers as we can.
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