How Times have Changed

Ahmadi Family Deportation delayed! as tension runs high around the Ghausia Jamia mosque

Ahmadi Family facing imminent deportation

Ahmadi Family Must Stay

Ahmadi Family Fight Deportation by Going into Sanctuary

A young Muslim family that fled persecution and torture by the Taliban in Afghanistan, have been given sanctuary in their local mosque. They have taken Sanctuary in an attempt to delay their deportation, and buy time to persuade the Home Office not to return them to Germany and hear their application for asylum in the UK.

The small mosque, in Lye in the West Midlands, has become the centre of activity following the decision by Farid and Feriba Ahmadi, and their two children Seera and Hadia, to seek refuge there.

Following Farid's torture and the bombing of their home in Kabul, the family travelled through Pakistan, Dubai and Russia before being captured and imprisoned for eight months in the Wurzberg centre in Germany, before being transferred to the Garmisch camp. In both of these camps, conditions were extremely poor and the family suffered racial torment, abuse and unhygienic conditions.

However, the family escaped and risked their lives finding their way to Britain in the back of a lorry. On the 19th June 2001 they were discovered at Dover, from where the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) dispersed them to Hillbank in Lye, West Midlands. They have lived there ever since, until 27th June when they had to again uproot themselves.

Although the housing estate where they lived was run down - described recently by the BBC as "tired, at worst, run-down ... the housing estate is far from luxurious" - their flat was small, they had very little furniture and money was tight, Farid and Feriba Ahmad could not have been happier. In fact, in a ward that ranks amongst the most deprived in the country, the plight of the Ahmad's has brought the community together, uniting both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities alike. And in a climate where reports of tensions existing between Muslims and non-Muslims are an almost daily occurrence - the situation in Lye could not be any further apart.

Both Feriba and Farid had begun studying at Halesowen College, and their children had been attending Wollescote Primary School. All of the family had met the recent 'tests' that the Home Secretary David Blunkett recently suggested were a necessity for asylum seekers to become an integrated part of society.

So much so has their integration been, that the family have won the support of Soraya Walton, a governor at the school who is also the secretary of the campaign to keep the Ahmad Family in Lye. Soraya Walton said: "Most refugees are put in housing that many people would not want to live in and the majority of refugees lead a clean and decent life. People don't want to hear why they have had to leave their country. All they concentrate on is the negative aspect."

"We take it for granted that we can wake up in the morning and go to work or school. This family have never had that opportunity. They came to England so that they could have freedom and a life and so the children could be brought up in freedom. People forget that in this country. They have no idea of the persecution these people have faced."

Feriba said, "In Afghanistan I had lots of money but I was not happy. Here I have no money but I am very happy. We have freedom in England which we did not have in Afghanistan. If I could live in peace and freedom in Afghanistan, I would have stayed but I don't feel safe there."

The couple were both born in Kabul, but when the Taliban came to power six years ago their lives changed. Feriba, who was just 18 at the time, had harboured plans to go to university and become a doctor. But under the Taliban regime she was forbidden from studying. She hopes to study to train to be a nurse. Ironically, the local health authority where the Ahmad's are to be deported from, are currently recruiting nurses from the Philippines where relocation and accommodation costs are being offered - an amount much in excess of that which Farid and Feriba currently receive.

Farid, a qualified mechanic, owned his own business but was constantly harassed by the Taliban for money and cars. Twice he was held captive and tortured. The first time he was beaten with a rubber hose, the second time, electrodes were attached to his feet and he was given electric shocks.

After the couple's children, Hadia, now 6, and Seear, 4, were born, they wanted to raise them in safety. Feriba said: "All I have known in my country is fighting and war. Everything for me is gone and I would not feel safe going back. I love England and the people. I feel safe here - not frightened all the time."

The couple's desperation to escape from Kabul meant a drive over the border to Pakistan with their two young children. Once there, they paid "lots of money" to a 'trafficker' who said he could get them to England. Despite assurances, they ended up in Kiev and were eventually put on a train to Germany with no passports or documents. The family spent ten months in detention centres in Germany in what they described as "cramped, over-crowded conditions".

And now the Ahmad's, a young family that has faced terror and fear like very few the West are likely ever to experience - are back in less than adequate conditions. Whilst the local community are supplying them with food and basic requirements, they again sit in waiting of a fateful decision. And as has been the case so often for them, that decision is completely out of their own hands. We can only hope that common sense will prevail, and the overwhelming support of the general public can persuade the Home Office to make that decision one where the Ahmadis will no longer be the victims.

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paulrowlands@thenec.freeserve.co.uk

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Contact/help the Ahmadi Family Campaign

paulrowlands@thenec.freeserve.co.uk

Campaign Secretary

Soraya Walton on 01384 423552 from outside the UK +44 1384 423552