Background:

Yurdurgal Ay, a Kurdish woman from Turkey, and her four children, Beriwan (14), Newroz (12), Medya (7) and Dilovan (11), are fighting deportation from Britain. Her husband Salih Ay was sent back to Germany, supposedly a "safe third country", by the Home Office some time ago. On 11th May German officials deported him to Istanbul in Turkey. Since then there has been no news of him, and Mrs Ay is very worried about what has happened to him.

Why Yurdurgal and Salih Ay had to leave Turkey

Yurdurgal, said "I am from Diyarbakir. My husband and I were living in Sirnak which was a dangerous area at that time (1988). The soldiers and jandarma (military police) kept coming to our villages and putting pressure on us, coming into the houses and beating us, asking if we were supporting the guerrillas. Husbands were being taken to the jandarma station and being beaten. They were also beating the children and women in the houses. We went to Germany."

"For eleven years we lived under a hellish psychological war in Germany. Twice the police came to the house to try to deport us. Once they said to us ‘You are politicians - go and do politics in Turkey’. The children grew up in that atmosphere, and were all affected by it. Also they’ve always heard bad things about Turkey, which is somewhere they’ve never been."

Yurdurgal, says she has never slept well all this time she has been in Europe, from the beginning till now, always fearing the police will come and deport her. She says: "How long am I supposed to go on like this? The children were born in Europe but don’t feel safe. If I had rights in Turkey I would live there."

In spite of this, the Home Office wants to deport Yurdurgal and the children to Germany too, although the family are terrified of what will happen to them when Germany deports them to Turkey too. The children have fitted in well here, learning English quickly, and doing extremely well at school. Their teachers have written to say how popular the children are, with both teachers and other kids, and what a good contribution to school life they were making, and how shocking it is that the family faces deportation. Friends and teachers are campaigning for them to be allowed to stay.

When the children came to England they felt safer and thought it seemed different, because there’s usually less hostility to refugees here and they hoped the British authorities would offer them the protection from persecution that they need. But now the children are panicking and don’t feel safe any more, and are terrified about what’s going to happen.

Whatever the legal technicalities it cannot be right for the Home Office to wash their hands of Kurdish people here by saying that Germany is safe when they know full well that Germany does return Kurds to Turkey in spite of the evidence that it is not safe to do so and that people are routinely targetted on return to Turkey. When Salih Ay has been deported and has not been heard from, and when all the news suggests that the level of ill-treatment of Kurdish people in Turkey has risen in the last year, it must be wrong to threaten this family with return to Germany.

Yurdurgal's appeal against the Home Office’s refusal of her asylum claim here has now been refused, but her lawyer is preparing to challenge the decision via judicial review. She and the children were snatched from their home a week ago and are in Tinsley House Detention Centre at Gatwick, and have been told they will be deported on 6 August, though it is hoped that they will be released as soon as the judicial review application is lodged. But in the meantime, we ask the Home Secretary to exercise his discretion and allow the Ay family to stay here on compassionate grounds.

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Action - Please send urgent letters to the Home Secretary and the Minister!

It is very important to keep up the pressure on the Home Office over this case. It would be very much appreciated if people could write to the Home Secretary and/or the Minister if they have not already done so, or chase up the Home Office for a reply if they have written. Please also send any petition signature sheets you have collected to the Kurdish Community Centre as soon as possible.

The leaflet accompanying this email gives background to the case and contact details for the Home Office.

Rt Hon David Blunkett MPSecretary of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT

Dear Home Secretary,

Re: Mrs Ay and Beriwan, Medya, Newroz and Dilovan Ay – Ref: APX/99/953

I are writing to ask you to allow Yurdurgal Ay, a Kurdish woman from Turkey, and her four children, to stay in Britain.

The Home Office deported her husband, Salih Ay, back to Germany, earlier this year. On 11th May German officials deported him to Istanbul, and there has been no news of him since.

Mr and Mrs Ay had to leave Turkey in 1988 because of persecution and threats by the soldiers and jandarma (military police) in Sirnak where they were living. Sirnak was a dangerous area and is one of the two areas where the State of Emergency has still not been lifted. They went to Germany but, unfortunately, they did not find the protection they needed. Eventually in desperation they came to Britain. In fact the parallels with the Ahmadi case are striking, as their MP Chris Pond, has pointed out to you.

The children have fitted in well here, learning English quickly, and doing extremely well at school. Their teachers have written to say how popular the children are, with both teachers and other children, and what a good contribution to school life they were making, and how shocking it was that the family faced deportation.

When the children came to England they felt safer and thought it seemed different, because there’s usually less hostility to refugees in the UK than in Germany, and they hoped the British authorities would offer them the protection from persecution that they need. But now the children are in a panic and don’t feel safe any more. They are scared that, if they are deported to Germany, they will then be sent to Turkey.

Mrs Ay’s appeal against the Home Office’s refusal of her asylum claim here has now been turned down, but her lawyer is challenging the decision via judicial review. She and the children were arrested at their home in July and detained. They have now been in detention in Dungavel for about 2 months. I am very concerned that they have been imprisoned in this arbitrary way, which is discriminatory since it is only applied to non-British nationals. The chilren are having very inadequate lessons, quite different from the excellent environment they were in at school in Gravesend, and are constantly distressed. I ask you to release them and allow them to return home to Gravesend where they will also be near the Kurdish community in London.

I ask you to exercise your discretion and allow the Ay family to stay here in the UK on humanitarian and compassionate grounds outside the Immigration Rules.

It cannot be right for the Home Office to wash their hands of Kurdish people here on a technicality by saying that Germany is safe when they know full well that Germany does return Kurds to Turkey in spite of the evidence that it is not safe to do so. When all the news suggests that the level of ill treatment of Kurdish people in Turkey has risen in the last year, it must be wrong to threaten this family with return to Germany.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

email ncadc.london@appleonline.net