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SCHOOL
CHILDREN in Portsmouth are showing the humanity
which the governent so patently lacks.
They have rallied to defend three Kurdish Syrians,
including two teenagers, who are threatened with
deportation.
Fourteen year old Lorin Sulaiman, her sister and her
mother are threatened with being sent back to
Syria—which they escaped from two years ago.
Becasue they are Kurdish, the family were treated in
Syria as “maktoumeens”—unregistered or non-people.
They are not allowed to marry and their children are
not allowed to go to school. Neither are they
allowed passports.
Lorin’s father and brother are locked up in Syria
for speaking out. Her mother also spent some time in
prison for protesting against their treatment.
New Labour has repeateldy denounced the lack of
human rights in Syria. But the government is happy
to send someone back to torture or death.
The eldest daughter, Nasreem, 21, is married to
another Syrian Kurd who was also smuggled into the
country. The couple won their claim to stay in the
country last year.
But the immigration squad recently grabbed Lorin,
her mother and her sister from their home and locked
them in a detention centre at Gatwick airport to
await deportation.
Friends of Lorin at Mayfield School launched a
campaign for the family to be released and to be
allowed to remain in the country.
Students, staff, parents and sympathetic members of
the local community made frantic telephone appeals,
sent letters and e-mailed people in parliament, the
church, the press, local political associations and
asylum support groups.
A petition with 1,512 signatures was sent to the
local Labour MP, Syd Rapson.
The family went on hunger strike at the detention
centre. At the eleventh hour the deportation plans
were halted
The family could still be deported at any moment.
The immigration squad took the family’s front door
key, so they can enter the house more easily.
Lorin described the family’s experience at the
detention centre: “The room was cold and we didn’t
get any sleep. They kept coming in to check up on
us.”
Her mother said, “We came to this country for human
rights—where are they now? I am so proud of my
daughters for being strong. Thank you to those who
have been supporting us.”
The family’s solicitors have until this Sunday to
submit more evidence to Des Browne, the immigration
minister.
The campaign is especially significant because some
resdients in the Portsmouth and Gosport area have
campaigned against the opening of a local
immigration detention centre.
The support for the family represents a real
challenge to attitudes against asylum seekers seen
in that campaign.
Socialist Worker(Britain)
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk
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