Alketa Hoti Must Stay Campaign

Alketa Hoti is a student in North London who narrowly escaped deportation in June 2001. This is her story.

My name is Alketa Hoti and I come from Kosova. I am married and I have a four year old son, Ernie. I am studying English at the College of North East London.

I lived in a small village called Bukosh, near Mitrovica. Most people were Albanian. In March 1999 Serbian soldiers came to the village. They told my husband that if he did not tell them where the UCK people lived, they would rape his wife and mother and kill his son. Afterwards they set fire to the house. The Serbs separated the men of the village from the women and children. The women and children were kept in a stable. The young women were raped and the children were terrified. After 3 days we saw our husbands again. All the men had been beaten. The village and all our possessions were destroyed.

Afterwards everybody in the village left, the women and children in a trailer and the men on foot. We went to Albania and stayed in a tent. There we met an agent who sold us a passage to safety. We travelled for about a month by bus and plane and train to England.

We arrived in England in April 1999 and applied for asylum. In September I heard that my father had died from the injuries he suffered at the hands of the Serbs. In February 2000 we were refused asylum. We appealed and were waiting for the result.

On 14th June my husband Aurel got a letter asking him to go for an interview with immigration officers at Waterloo Station. He went and was told that our appeal had been refused. He was detained for 2 days. From there he was sent to detention centres at Heathrow and Gatwick. I could only speak to him on the phone. Then I received a letter ordering me to go with my son to Heathrow Airport on the Friday morning at 5.15am. I was desperate. I could not eat or drink.

I went to my teacher and she phoned many people to organise help for me. I got a new solicitor and with her help and pressure from many people, including David Lammy MP, the deportation was suspended for 6 months. On 22nd June, the day we were due to be deported, Aurel was released. All of those people who had been in the cell with him were sent back. Some of them had not eaten for a week. He saw one man being held down and injected with something before being put on the plane.

We cannot go back to Kosovo. There is no peace. My country is divided. The situation is dangerous. With the fighting in Macedonia and Albania there are many refugees in Kosovo and there are no facilities for them. Because Aurel was forced by the Serbs to identify the UCK he is in danger if we go back. My brother-in-law and nephew were killed 6 months ago. Life in Kosova is dangerous and here we are safe. My son goes to the nursery at North Haringey Infants School and is happy here. He has nightmares about Kosova.

We came to this country for safety. We are not criminals and we should not live in fear. In Kosova every day we were living in fear of the Serbs. Here we are waiting every day for the letter under the door and we are living with fear again.

I am telling my story because I want you to know what is happening in my country and I want you to help my family and other asylum seekers with the same problems. Please support us.

For more information about the campaign for:

Kosovan students at the College of North East London threatened with deportation

contact Jenny on 07951 122 104

e-mail jsutton@staff.conel.ac.uk