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Popular local Kurd "Sebahattin Soylemez"
faces deportation
10.8.2005
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A "MOTIVATED" member of the Hastings community faces
a return to his native Turkey, despite fears his
politics could see him arrested on arrival.
Kurdish asylum seeker Sebahattin Soylemez, 34, was
taken into custody by immigration officials under
E28 of the Immigration Act on June 27, and moved on
the same day to a holding centre at Eastern Docks in
Dover.
He had lived in St Leonards for about a year, and at
the time of his detention was trying to establish an
organisation in the Kurdish community called United
Kurdish Action, highlighting the plight of their
ethic group in Turkey.
He is now threatened with a return to the country,
and fears his ethnicity and political views could
lead to persecution and arrest. |
Sebahattin Soylemez
Photo:
Hastings Today |
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Members of the Hastings Kurdish Welfare association
have already attracted 63 signatures to a petition
to keep him in the country.
Association member Yasser Dirki said: "He has a lot
of support from upstanding members of the Kurdish
community in Hastings and St Leonards.
"We've contacted a few lawyers but they think it's a
losing case. It's all down to the wish of the good
people of Hastings."
Sebahattin was an active member of the community,
and had helped set up classes for Kurdish people to
learn English at Chapel Park Online, at the Chapel
Park Community Centre.
Tricia Owens, manager of Chapel Park Online, said:
"He was interested in getting English classes for
the Kurdish community. He was instrumental in
getting everything started off.
"He was very motivated in working in the Kurdish
community, and a very pleasant person. It's a great
shame he's no longer around." A Home Office report
into the human rights situation in Turkey concluded:
"Although Turkish citizens of Kurdish ethnic origins
may face some unequal treatment or discrimination
this does not generally reach the level of
persecution.
"Therefore it is unlikely that applicants in this
category would qualify for asylum or humanitarian
protection and such claims are likely to be clearly
unfounded." However, a report by Freedom House in
January stated "torture and ill-treatment by
officials continue to be an issue in Turkey".
Sebahattin was moved from Dover at the end of June
and is now at Harmandsworth Immigration Removal
Centre, near Heathrow Airport. An appeal to the
European Court of Human Rights is pending, but
friends fear he could be deported before any
decision is made.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "All
applications for asylum are considered on a
case-by-case basis by skilled case workers in line
with the Geneva Convention.
"If somebody's asylum application has failed, we
would consider it safe to send someone back to their
country of origin."
If you wish to sign the petition to keep Sebahattin
in Hastings, log on to
www.petitiononline.com/soylemez/petition.html.
www.hastingstoday.co.uk
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