Stop the Deportation of the Narantsogt Family

From Liverpool's Parade Princess to Scotland's prisoner    
    
    8 year old Misheel Narantsogt was chosen out of hundreds of children to be crowned Liverpool's parade princess. But that dream is in danger of being shattered because she and her family were snatched without warning in a dawn raid by an immigration squad and taken to Dungavel Removal Centre to await deportation to Mongolia.

    Positive Action in Housing is calling on the Home secretary to release eight year old "Liverpool Parade Princess" Misheel Narantsogt and her family from Dungavel, where they have been held for the past twelve days.

    Misheel is being held at Dungavel deportation centre in Scotland, with her parents Jugder, 38, and Shinee, 37, and 17-year-old brother Evsaana.

    Misheel's mother, Shinee, told us:
    "My daughter's dream is to be a model, so we sent in her pictures, and out of hundreds of kids, they chose her. She was over the moon that she is to be a princess in the Liverpool Parade on 10th July 2004. But she will lose her title if she cannot get back to Liverpool for her dress fitting and the Parade. The organisers have given us a few days to get back down to Liverpool but we still cannot get a reply from the home office. We told Misheel that she's in a castle just like a princess but she doesn't believe it. We didn't tell her that she could lose her title if we don't get out of Dungavel.. She just wants to go there and wear her crown.

    "She's smarter than her age and she's very sad in here. She can't go out unless they say yes. It's not like our own house, for our children its very hard. My son is seventeen and he can't go out to the gym or to the shops. He was studying IT in Hugh Baird college and he is missing his course. He has exams later this month and he is going to miss them. We can't go back to our country."

    Misheel said:    "I'm really sad because i want to go home and get my princess title."

    The family fear for Mr Narantsogt's life if they are forced to return to their native Mongolia, after having two asylum appeals rejected. The family fled two years ago, after Mr Narantsogt, who is a provincial head of the rebel Mongolian Democratic Party, was arrested for opposing the ruling Communist Party.

    They settled in Liverpool, where both children were attending school, and both parents were studying English and other courses at Hugh Baird College in Bootle.

    The family were taken to Dungavel last week after Riverside MP Louise Ellman secured an emergency deferment for the Home Office to re-consider their asylum application. Mrs Narantsogt claims she and her children were persecuted after her husband went into hiding following his arrest in 2000, for trying to organise a democratic revolution. She says she believes agents of the Communist party repeatedly searched their home and demanded to know her husband's whereabouts. She claims he was close friends with the leader and founder of the Mongolian Democratic Party, Zorig Sanjasuuren, who was assassinated in 1998.

    Positive Action in Housing is calling for the immediate release of the Narantsogt family.

    Robina Qureshi, Director, said:
    "In a matter of days this little girl has gone from being Liverpool's princess to Scotland's prisoner. Misheel's parents don't know how to tell her they are being kept in Dungavel against their will even though she is begging to go home.
    "For her sake, and in the spirit of Refugee week, we call on David Blunkett  to exercise his discretion and allow the family home so that Misheel can be crowned      Princess at  the Parade on July 10th. It's a small request to him but a very  big thing for this little girl. The family have not flouted any immigration rules and are willing to report regularly to the local police station so that they can live back in the community while their case is considered."

What you can do to Help:
Positive Action in Housing is calling on everyone to Fax/write to the Home Secretary requesting that the  Narantsogt Family is allowed to stay. You can use the model letter attached. Copy/amend/write your own version, feel free to add your own comments.

You can fax David Blunkett on 020 7273 3965, or from outside the UK +44 20 7373 3965

Or write direct:Write to:

David Blunkett
Home Office
50 Queen Annes Gate
London
SW1H 9AT

Please copy your letters or emails to: home@paih.org 
or fax 0141 353 3882 From outside the UK 00 + 141 353 3882
Positive Action in Housing
98 West George Street
Glasgow
G2 1PJ

You can take further action by contacting your own MP:
You can fax your MP at  <http://www.faxyourmp.com/>www.faxyourmp.com and ask them to take it up with David Blunkett.

Messages of Solidarity:
Send cards and letters of support to:
The Narantsogt family
Room 401 Dungavel Removal Centre
Strathaven
South Lanarkshire
ML10 6RF

Notes to editors

1. Positive Action in Housing is a Scottish wide anti-racist organisation working with communities and others to enable everyone to have an equal chance to live in good quality, affordable and safe homes, free from discrimination and the fear of racial harassment and violence. Since 1995, we have taken a centre stage role in challenging racism and supporting the human right of everyone to live in a safe home and neighbourhood. Then, we were fighting the legacy of years of discrimination in housing against immigrant communities. We still are. Today that fight has shifted to challenging the forced dispersal, segregation, imprisonment and destitution of refugee communities. Our work is not just about housing discrimination; it is also about human rights or the abuse of it by a country that is supposed to champion civil liberties, democracy and freedom.
2. Press enquiries to: 0777 3321727.
3. Log onto http://www.paih.org/>www.paih.org to find out about our work, get involved or make a donation.

Source for this page:
Positive Action in Housing