Ay Family Campaign - June 1999 - August 5th 2003

    Deported, but the fight continues 

      It is with great sadness that we confirm that Yurdurgal, Beriwan, Newroz, Dilovan and Medya Ay were deported from the UK at 10.00am on Tuesday 5th August 2003.

     But  their magnificent  battle against deportation, which has lasted four years, will continue. 

      Prior to their deportation the family , including four children, spent 385 days in detention nearly all of it in Dungaval Removal centre in Scotland. This treatment of children, unprecedented in Europe, shocked people in Britain and abroad.  

      With in weeks of their arrival in Scotland the Scottish people took the Ay family to their hearts and joined the myriad of campaigners in England fighting for the release of the family from detention and demanding that the Home Office give them leave to remain in the UK

      It is not by any means the end of the battle to prevent this family from being returned to Turkey.

      Already Anti-Deportation groups in Germany are providing support for the family and as much as campaigners in the UK did to stop the family being removed to Germany and on to Turkey, so campaigners will do the same in Germany to stop Germany removing the family to Turkey.

      However, Britain clearly owes a moral debt to these children, who have had more than a year of their lives stolen from them. The only recompense the Home Secretary can make for the suffering meted out to these children is to allow them to return to their friends and community in the UK.

      We want Beriwan, Newroz, Dilovan, Meyda and their mother brought back to us.
   
      Sarah Parker for Ay Family Campaign

       NCADC would like to thank all who faxed/wrote to the Home Office and a special thanks to those 'Brave Hearts' in Scotland  and England who fought to the last moment.

Ay, It’s A Sad Day For Civil Society    Sunday Herald Sunday 10th August 2003
Scotland: Nation’s cultural leaders unite in outcry over Ay family’s treatment
Scotland: A parliament silenced in fear of having an opinion

SNP seeks Dungavel inquiry    BBC News Online Scotland Saturday 9th August 2003

Must others suffer like the Ays?       Glasgow Herald Friday 8th August 2003
McConnell's Scots tour dogged by Ay questions     Glasgow Herald Friday 8th August 2003 
Wallace stepped in over previous asylum dispute    Glasgow Herald Friday 8th August 2003

Msp’s Tears over Deported Asylum Family       The Scotsman Thursday 7th August

Anger as Ay children put on plane and deported to Germany    Glasgow Herald
Beriwan, an innocent victim of Britain's asylum system        The Independent
Executive's silence insults concerns over Ay family    Leader: Glasgow Herald

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Ay family are failed by politicians' moral cowardice Leader: Glasgow Herald 5th August 2003

Kurdish teenager's last plea for asylum    The Scotsman Tuesday 5th August 2003

Ay family will refuse to be deported   Glasgow Herald, Monday 4th July 2003

These children lived here for years. Now they're being frogmarched out of Britain

Beriwan Ay: Child urges centre's closure   BBC News Online

Ay Family: Scottish human rights lawyer picks up the Gauntlet
     Aamer Anwar, a Scottish human rights lawyer, after he was contacted by Beirwan, the eldest child, has lodged an aslyum application on behalf of the four children.
Last ditch plea for Dungavel family
      Today Tuesday 5th August 2003, the Ay children Beriwan (14), Newroz (13), Dilowan (12) and Medya (8) will be spending their 385th day in detention!        385 days too many

      The Ay Family Campaign have launched an international Appeal to the Home Secretary to release the Ay family from detention and let them remain in Britain!

       Yurdurgal Ay and her children were snatched from their home in Gravesend on Wednesday  July 17th 2002 and have been held in Dungavel Removal Centre in Scotland for most of the year they will have now spent in detention.

      Support for the release of the Ay children grows stronger by the day.

      Concern at the lengthy detention of children in unsuitable conditions has been expressed by many individuals and organisations including Robert Brown, chair of the Scottish ParliamentÕs Education Committee and other Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Refugee Council, Gordon Jeyes, director of children's services at Stirling Council, Tauhid Pasha of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the Glasgow Herald and Scotsman, the Independent on Sunday, and the Guardian newspapers; several Scottish clerics, Dr Frank Murphy, former psychological services manager, South Lanarkshire Council and Bill Speirs, general secretary STUC  have asked you to allow the family to stay. Campaign supporters include Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway. The staff and pupils at the schools the children attended for three years in Gravesend have written to you as have many others, including the familyÕs MP Chris Pond, Green MEP Jean Lambert, Lords Dholakia and Hylton and Baroness Sarah Ludford. Thousands more from the Kurdish community and the wider community have signed petitions asking that they be allowed to stay.

     What you can do: add your name to the ever growing list of  people and organisations who say the children and their mother should be released from detention and given leave to remain in the UK.

Fax/write to the Home Secretary David Blunkett, using the model letter 'Attached', which you can copy/amend/write your own.

Fax no: 020 7273 3965 from outside the UK + 44 20 7273 3965

Or write to:

David Blunkett
Home Secretary
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT

   The campaign are asking those receiving this message living outside the UK, not only to fax the British Home Secretary direct  but to Fax a copy to the British Embassy in their own country. The fax numbers of all British Embassy's can be accessed @

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029395231

Please take time to send a copy of anything sent to:

Ay Family Campaign
c/o NCADC
Cambridge House
131 Camberwell Road
London SE5 0HF

Or notify by email to: ncadc-london@ncadc.org.uk

Ay Family Campaign
Recent background information:

Full background information:

Enquiries/further information:
Allison Bennett
Phone: 020 7701 5197
ncadc-london@ncadc.org.uk