A FORMER Doncaster schoolgirl who was snatched from her home by immigration officials has been told she can stay in the country.
Former Hall Cross School pupil Meltem Avcil, aged 15, and her mother Cennet were removed from their Doncaster home last summer in a dawn raid and initially locked up at Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in London, where she was detained for three months.
The Kurdish family fled Turkey because of alleged persecution. And Meltem’s father went missing after his asylum bid was turned down in Britain in 2001.
After a failed bid to deport them on a flight to Germany, the pair were moved to the Millbank induction centre for asylum seekers in Ashford, Kent.
But the human rights campaigner who led the battle to keep them in the country today confirmed both have now been allowed to stay in the UK.
They are leaving Doncaster and will be living in the North East.
Campaigner Robina Qureshi, from Positive Action in Housing said: “Meltem Avcil has now got indefinite leave to remain and is living in Newcastle with her mum and they are quite happy there. She is now at school in year nine and is glad to be back at school although she misses Doncaster.”
She added Meltem had expressed her gratitude for the help she had received from people in Doncaster during her battle to stay in the country. She was a schoolgirl in the borough for six years before her detention.
Campaigners in Doncaster joined the fight to keep the schoolgirl in the country and held a vigil in support of her campaign.
A total of 1,583 supporters wrote to protest over Meltem’s initial detention at Yarl’s Wood before she was finally moved to Millbank.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/Joy-as-Meltem-given-permission.4206658.jp
