Ay Family Update - Partial Success at Court hearing on 17th December 2002

The judge has agreed that Mrs Ay should have the right to ask again for judicial review of the Home Secretary's refusal of her Human Rights Appeal. Importantly he considered that her case is not "manifestly unfounded", ie that she does have a case to put. But unfortunately he refused the bail application, on the grounds that it will not be long until the next court decision (he said that the next hearing should be listed by the end of January 2003).

The Ay family are still in Dungavel Removal/detention prison and very upset. The children still cry when people from the outside world speak to them on the phone. They have now been in detention for nearly five months. Each time there is a bail hearing they are told that it is OK for them to remain in detention because there will be a decision soon. So solidarity messages would be very welcome, at this time when people are supposedly meant to be enjoying themselves.

Please write to them at:

Dungavel House Immigration Centre
Strathaven,
South Lanarkshire
ML10 6RF.

The contrast between how pleased Beriwan, Medya, Newroz and Dilowan were to be at school in Gravesend, and what an excellent education they were receiving, and the miserable and feeble "educational provision" they have been subjected to in Dungavel Immigration Removal/detention Centre and Harmondsworth Immigration Removal/detention Centre, also shows exactly what is wrong with the government's plans for barring children in accommodation centres from normal schools which they have just succeeded in rushing through Parliament. For information on the wider campaign against segregated education for asylum seeker children contact kay@crossroadswomen.net.

We know that the Home Office are worried by the support they know the Ays are getting and the resemblances to the Ahmadi case. It is vital for people to keep writing (model letter at end of message) to the Home Office (or to write to their own MP's, asking them to take the case up) so that they accept the justice of Mrs Ay's request to stay here. Any victory for one family can only be helpful to others including the Ahmadis, and it will also show the government the strength of feeling there is against the unfair and harsh treatment of so many asylum seekers.

You can write/fax to the Home Secretary David Blunkett, at the Home Office, 50 Queen Anne‚s Gate, London SW1H 9AT or fax them on 020 7273 3965, asking the Home Secretary to exercise his discretion and allow the Ay family to stay here on compassionate grounds. Even if the Ays can win through the courts, they have been in detention for far too long! Please quote HO Ref APX/99/953 and send a copy to the *campaign.

Model letter, copy, amend, write your own:

Fax number o20 7273 3965 from outside the UK + 44 20 7273 3965

Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
Secretary of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT
Fax: 020 7273 3965

Dear Home Secretary,

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

I am 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 in early 2002. 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 is still a dangerous area and even though the State of Emergency has just been lifted human rights activists from the area have confirmed that they do not expect condtions to return to anything we would consider normal any time soon.

The Ays went to Germany but unfortunately did not find the protection they needed. Eventually in desperation they came to Britain. The parallels with the Ahmadi case are striking, as their MP Chris Pond, has pointed out to you.

The children fitted in well here, learning English quickly, and doing extremely well at school. Their teachers wrote 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 they hoped the British authorities would offer them the protection they needed. But now the children are in constant distress, terrified that if they are deported to Germany they will then be sent to Turkey.

On 17 December Mrs Ay‚s lawyer in the Court of Appeal won the right to go for judicial review again against the Home Office‚s refusal of her asylum claim here. The Court of Appeal agreed that her claim was not manifestly unfounded.

As you will be aware she and the children have now been in detention in Dungavel, with periods in Gatwick and Harmondsworth, for nearly 5 months. This detention for so long of a mother and children who just wanted to come here in order to be safe and to be able to lead a normal life is wrong in my view, and is certainly very damaging to all the family. I ask you to release them and allow them to return home to Gravesend and school, where they will also be near the Kurdish community in London.

It is still the case that the children are having very inadequate lessons, quite different from the excellent environment they were in at school in Gravesend. The recent psychologist‚s report on the children states that the two middle children, Newroz and Dilowan, show clear signs of anxiety and depression, and warns that the stress of return to Germany would have severely and possibly permanently damaging effects upon them.

In the event of any final refusal of Mrs Ay‚s asylum claim, 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 contained in numerous reports on human rights 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, and when Commissioner Verheugen is still pointing out that Turkey has yet to abolish routine torture, it must be wrong to threaten this family with return to Germany and Turkey.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Address

Post code

Country

Email address:

Please notify the campaign of anything sent:

Ay-Family-Campaign@ncadc.org.uk

Many thanks for your continuing support,
Sarah Parker for Ay Family Campaign

*Contact the campaign at

email:

Ay-Family-Campaign@ncadc.org.uk

or phone Haringey Kurdish Community Centre on 0208 880 1804.

Background: Ay Family Campaign

http://www.ncadc.org.uk/letters/news27/ayfamily.html