Latest News from Positive Action in Housing

By Chris Green and Robert Verkaik
Published: 24 November 2007

A 14-year-old Kurdish asylum-seeker who escaped deportation to Germany this week was finally released from detention last night after serious concerns were raised about her mental health. Meltem Avcil and her mother are understood to have left Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire before being taken to bed-and-breakfast accommodation in Kent.

The Home Office has been trying to deport Meltem and her mother to Germany, where their asylum application was first refused, despite the fact that for the past six years Meltem has been educated in the UK, and is now fluent in English.

Last week The Independent reported that an attempt to remove the mother and daughter using a private security escort team was abandoned after a British Airways pilot refused to let them fly on grounds of health and safety. In a second aborted removal attempt this week it is believed the Home Office had chartered a private jet.

But doctors who have examined Meltem in Bedford hospital said they were very concerned about her mental health. The Avcil family, originally from Turkey, were visited by the children’s commissioner who is believed to have brought their case to the attention of the Home Office.

Meltem, who spent three months in Yarl’s Wood, said she was “very happy” to be released and now intended to travel back to Doncaster where the family had lived for six years and where they could be reunited with friends and supporters. “I am so happy I think I will burst. This is my best moment ever. I want to say thank you to the children’s commissioner for not forgetting me,” she added.

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, who led the campaign, said: “We welcome and celebrate Meltem’s release.” She added that 1,583 supporters in Britain, Germany and France had written to express their outrage at her detention.

The release of Meltem and her mother followed criticism of the Government’s use of detention in child asylum cases. A group of European MPs visiting three detention centres in the UK expressed concern over the length of time children were detained.

A Border and Immigration Agency spokesman said: “Detention is used only where necessary and this is especially true for families with children. Depending upon the individual circumstances of each case, we will always endeavour to keep families together.”

Nov 24 2007 by Rob Pattinson, Evening Chronicle

A DISTRAUGHT wife is facing bringing up her children alone after her husband was arrested and told he will be booted out of the country.

Nabi Nazari, 26, of Ellesmere Road, Benwell, fled his home in Afghanistan after a Taliban warlord gunned down his father and uncle and then pledged to kill him next.

After arriving in the North East six years ago, Nabi worked hard to become a model citizen, learning English at Newcastle College and marrying Georgina Kirtley.

But his dreams of living in peace in England were shattered when Home Office immigration officers swooped and incarcerated him in Dunagavel detention centre in Glasgow.

Today Georgina, who is two months’ pregnant, will travel with her daughter Amy-Leigh to see her husband for what she fears could be the last time, as he is due to be deported on Tuesday.

Unable to fight back the tears, the 25-year-old said: “He belongs here. This is his home. Even staff at the detention centre say he speaks with a Geordie accent. He has only faded memories of Afghanistan. He has no-one there and it’s terrifying him.”

The young mum, who vows to campaign for Nabi’s right to remain in England, had come to rely on Nabi for his calming influence on her emotionally unstable life. When they met in 2002, it was Nabi who nursed her through mental health problems and helped her rebuild family life with her daughter.

The couple, who were married in Newcastle, settled in Benwell, and just before Christmas 2004, Amy-Leigh, eight, moved back home with her mum.

Georgina, who admits she finds it hard to control her boisterous daughter on her own, said: “Amy doesn’t see her real dad, Nabi is the only father she has ever known. She calls him dad.

“He takes her swimming and to the Brownies. He was so proud of her when she received her first aid award at Brownies – he even hand-sewed the badges to her sash.”

The Home Office refused Nabi’s asylum claim in October 2004, and he has been appealing ever since, but to no avail. A Home Office spokesman said it could not comment on individual cases, but said: “The Government is determined to protect the UK’s immigration system and marriage laws from abuse, and in order for an applicant to be settled as a spouse they must hold a valid UK entry clearance for entry in the correct capacity.

“Applicants who do not meet the requirements for leave to remain as a spouse will be expected to return home and apply for entry clearance in the correct capacity order to join their spouse in the UK.”

Georgina says she now finds it unbearable to leave the house and sleepless nights for both mother and daughter are beginning to take its toll. She said: “Without him I can’t function. Now I can’t get out of bed in the morning and Amy and I are both struggling. Life has been turned upside down. Sometimes she doesn’t make it to school because neither of us can sleep at night.

“When I met him life had new meaning and he filled it with joy. He is perfect for me – kind, soft, but he has incredible strength. He is my rock and thought of losing him is tearing me apart.”

Nabi’s life in Newcastle has included volunteering with the North Benwell Neighbourhood Management Initiative, working to improve the area and parks in East Newcastle.

The couple often take part in community-spirited events such as street clean-ups and held a stall to raise money for Farndale Park regeneration project.

Support worker for East Area Asylum Seekers Geof Godwin said: “I can not speak highly enough about Nabi.

“He has proved himself a model husband and devoted parent, and above all an exemplary citizen.”

For information about the campaign for Nabi, send an e-mail to nabi.georgina@googlemail.com