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Thaha Family Must Stay! - Say NO to Detention - Say NO to Deportation

    Sad news, despite brilliant resistance the Thaha family were deported yesterday morning, on arrival in Germany Ruir, Hana and Sebrin were separated and have been detained at different locations.
Hana spoke to Jon McKenzie at 6.00pm our timeThursday 17th March 2005. 

     "Deported, our family divided, I want to live in Plymouth not die in Iraq"
      
     "At 2.00am this morning (Thursday), the guards came for us again.  We knew they would come at about this time because that is what they did last week.  There were five of them again, but this time it was four men and only one woman."

     "My mother was very upset and crying.  They put something on her hands to tie them together and I think in English the name for them is cuffs."

     "The woman came to me and I told her that I did not want to go in the van.  She pulled my hair and said she would punch me if I caused any problem.  Then she grabbed my by my wrist and my arm and dragged me to the van.  It was very frightening and I was crying.  When I tried to say something the woman put her hand over my mouth to stop me.  This was the same for Hana, a man grabbed her and pulled her along, she was crying too and I can tell she was very scared."

     "When we all got to the van they pushed my mother inside and also handcuffed her to one of the seats.  The woman was pushing me into the van but I didn't want to get in.  The woman started swearing at me and pulled my hair and hit me in my body.  I was pushed into the van a hit my head.  My wrist and my arm are very sore and there are some purple and blues marks on it.  Hana also has blue marks on her wrist and I think she hurt her leg as well."

     "My mother was chained to the seat all the way to the plane.  The guards were holding me and Hannah."

     "When we got taken from the plane in Düsseldorf there were many police waiting for us.  They took us all to a medical clinic.  We stayed there for a while then they told us that we being taken somewhere else because it was not a place for children.  I thought that Hana and me would be together, like when we went to foster care people in England. But they brought me to this place for refugee children and they have taken Hannah somewhere else about twenty miles away.  I am very scared for her because she is too young to be on her own."

     "My mother is still in the mental clinic and I have been told that she will be kept there for one week.  I am very worried that now we are in Germany my mother will try to kill herself again because she was very scared to come back here.  In my letter to the Queen of England I told her about this and I also wrote this down in my report for the Commissioner because he asked to tell him everything about us."

     "Now there is no-one to help us if they want to send us back to Iraq.  I want to live in Plymouth not die in Iraq"

Sebrin Thaha,
          Germany Thursday 17th March 2005

"We are not giving up on the Thaha Family, the campaign will fight on to try and get the family returned to the UK or permanent status in Germany. We will be in constant touch with the family. Please send messages of solidarity to <ThahaCampaign@aol.com > which we will forward to the family in Germany." Jon McKenzie

For the Thaha Family Campaign:
C/o National Civil Rights Movement (South West)

"We will Not leave the UK"
    
Sebrin and Hana Thaha refused to board the airplane that was to remove them and their mother Ruir to Germany last Friday. The family were woken from their sleep at 3.00am on Friday morning at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre and told to pack their belongings; all three were then put into a van by immigration escorts and driven to Heathrow airport direct to the steps of the plane.

    Their mum Ruir was led out of the van and onto the plane, Hana and Sebrin were asked to follow, they both refused to leave the van. Despite threats from the escorts that the plane would leave with only their mum on board, Sebrin and  Hana sat tight, they were convinced the escorts were bluffing and shortly after when the escorts accepted that the girls were not going to move, they fetched the girl's mother from the plane and all three were eventually returned to Yarl's Wood Removal Centre.

    "The Thaha family's fight to remain in the UK has reached a crucial stage, last Friday's events were serious and we have to applaud Hana and Sebrin for their brave and determined effort to keep the family in the UK." Jon McKenzie NCRM South West

    NCADC spoke to Hana and Sebrin on Sunday at Yarl's Wood - both were in excellent humour and quite determined to fight on to remain in the UK. "They claim the Home Office gave them a statement saying that the UK want to return them to Germany and that once there they will be given leave to remain by the German Government.  They don't accept this"

    "This statement flies in the face of reality" said Sebrin: 'We made our asylum claim in Germany, we were refused and removal directions were set, at this stage we packed our bags and made our way to England. We made a new life in England, both my sister and I have worked hard at school, and I am going to remain in the UK until I finish my GCSEs.

    Sebrin is writing to the Children's Commissioner, Prof Al Aynsley-Green, and will ask him to intervene. He has been appointed by the Government to look after the interests of children, she will send him a detailed document of the family's history.

    Both sisters asked NCADC to convey their thanks to all those who so far have helped to raise the profile of their fight to remain in the UK and they want you all to keep circulating the petition ; they are convinced that it will make a difference if the UK Government know you want the Thaha Family to stay in the UK.

    What you can do to Help:
    Friends, supporters and the National Civil Rights Movement South West have set up a campaign to persuade Des Browne, the Minister for Immigration, on the strength of Ruir, Sebrin and Hana's links to the community and the community's links to them, and, that they should be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.

    The campaign has drawn up a petition (attached), which they are asking everyone to print off and fill in, and get as many other people as possible to do the same, and return them to the campaign office. When they have collected enough signatures, the campaign will ask their local - MP David Jamieson - to present them to the Minister for Immigration.


For more information and offers of support, please contact:
Thaha Family Campaign
C/O National Civil Rights Movement (South West)
37 New Street
Barbican
Plymouth
PL1 2NA
Telephone: Jon 07940 115827
ThahaCampaign@aol.com

Source for this Message:
NCADC
National Civil Rights Movement (South West)
  
     Thaha Family Must Stay! - Say NO to Detention - Say NO to Deportation

     On 24th February 2005, six immigration and police officers went to the Thaha house in Plymouth and arrested Hana and Sebrin Thaha, as they were getting ready to go to school. They were given just one hour to get dressed and pack all their belongings. They were threatened that if they did not get dressed quickly, they would be taken away in their nightclothes. After being arrested and treated as though they were hardened criminals, they were taken  with their mother Ruir to Tynsley House Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport. The sisters had only been in the centre two days when they were separated from their mother and taken into care by Social Services. Ruir Thaha was then moved to Yarl's Wood.  Both mother and children found the separation extremely distressing. Yesterday the children were given back into the care of Ruir and all three continue to be detained in Yarl's Wood.
    
    Hana, "I miss all my friends at school and I want to thank them for everything they are doing to help us. I hope I can come back to Plymouth soon to finish my studies"
     
     Sebrin, "We just hope that someone is helping us. We cannot do anything inside here. Everyone is very upset. We just don't know what is going to happen to us next"

     Ruir Thaha and her two daughters Sebrin (14yrs) and Hana (12yrs) are Kurdish asylum seekers who have fled from Iraq. They have lived in Plymouth for nearly three years and are a well-liked and much respected family. After all this time, the Home Office has recently refused their application to stay in the UK and now wants to deport the family to Germany as soon as possible, where they will have to start life all over again.

     The Thaha Family wants to return to Plymouth to carry on with the lives they have built during the past three years. This family is fighting to stay in the UK from behind the barbed wire fences of Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre. They need all the support they can get at this time of crisis. Already their school, the Catholic Bishop of Plymouth, the local press and family friends have joined the call to the Home Office to get them back to their family home in the city. We invite you to join us in a show of public support.

     John McKenzie, from the Monitoring Group, is fighting for the family to stay in the UK. He said the situation was "grotesque in the extreme".

     "This family have already been through so much. Ruir took her girls away from Iraq to save their lives."

     School friends of Hana and Sebrin at Notre Dame School have been emailing the immigration service asking for their friends and their mother to be allowed to stay in the UK.

     Christopher Budd, Roman Catholic Bishop for Plymouth has contacted the Home Secretary asking him to review the case; in an interview for the Plymouth Evening Herald he said:  "What has disturbed me is that out of the blue these two girls and their mother can just be lifted, especially as these girls seem to have settled down really well and were happy. They can just be whipped away. It leaves me feeling very uncomfortable.

"The separation of the mother and her two daughters is very disturbing. The way the immigration service has acted comes across as ruthless. The girls were not even allowed to go to the toilet."

    Local MP David Jamieson has joined him in the call for the family to remain.

    So please come to Plymouth this Saturday if you can, if you can't be there send a message of 'Solidarity' to:
ThahaCampaign@aol.com
   
     What you can do to Help:
   1) Friends and supporters and the National Civil Rights Movement South West have set up a campaign to persuade Des Browne, the Minister for Immigration, on the strength of Ruir, Sebrin and Hana's links to the community and the community's links to them, and, that they should be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.

    The campaign has drawn up a petition  (attached), which they are asking everyone to print off and fill in, and get as many other people as possible to do the same, and return them to the campaign office. When they have collected enough signatures, the campaign will ask their local - MP David Jamieson - to present them to the Minister for Immigration.

2) • If David Jamieson is your MP: (or even if he’s not!)
Contact him, tell him what you feel about this case and make sure he knows that you want him to do everything he can to keep the Thaha family in the UK.
Please quote Port Reference Number – DEU/7985/02
David Jamieson MP
House of Commons
Westminster
SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 6252 & 01752 704977
Fax: 020 7219 2388 & 01752 364325
jamiesond@parliament.uk

3) • Write a letter to the Thaha family and let them know they have your support:
All letters, marked for “The Thaha Family” should be sent to us and we will forward these to Ruir, Sebrin and Hana. Please send all letters to:
Thaha Family Campaign, C/0 NCRM South West
37 New Street, The Barbican, Plymouth, PL1 2NA

• Copy the information above, give it to your friends, colleagues, members of your family etc and ask them to do all of the above things.

Thanks for your support

The Thaha Family Must Stay! Campaign

For more information and offers of support, please contact:
Thaha Family Campaign
C/O National Civil Rights Movement (South West)
37 New Street
Barbican
Plymouth
PL1 2NA
Telephone: Jon 07940 115827
ThahaCampaign@aol.com

Source for this Message:
National Civil Rights Movement (South West)

Last updated 26 August, 2008