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UK: Protest as Kurdish family is deported
to Turkey
7.12.2006 |
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December
7, 2006
A family of four Kurds who have lived in the
North-East for five years have been detained and
sent on a flight back to Turkey within 48 hours,
angry campaigners said last night.
The solicitor acting for the Ozdemir family, who
lived in Newcastle's West End, said the speed of
their removal from the country was "unheard of"
after their application for asylum failed.
Hidayet Ozdemir and his pregnant wife Hatin were put
on a flight back to Turkey yesterday after
immigration officials swooped on their home in
Croydon Road on Monday.
Also sent back were their children Susan, 11, and
Dennis, seven, who came to the city when he was aged
just one. Both were pupils at Moorside Community
Primary School.
The family's solicitor Elisabeth Kohi said
yesterday: "It's extremely quick. It doesn't give
representatives time to do the work properly."
She said Mrs Ozdemir had filed her own application
for asylum on Tuesday night, citing persecution of
Kurds in Turkey. Ms Kohi said she had been able to
fax papers through to officials just five minutes
before the flight was due to take off, but they had
refused to take the family off the flight. "I've
been in this business long enough to know that if
there's the will, when there is an application like
that, they're able to take a person off the plane,"
Ms Kohi said. "The family were decent, law-abiding
people. I could seek a court order to bring them
back, but the chances are very slim." |
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Family friend Donald Daly, who helps run a
children's club which was attended by Dennis and
Susan at Westgate Baptist Church in Newcastle, said:
"They're a lovely family. They welcomed us into
their home every time we visited.
"This is home for the children, particularly.
They're basically going to an alien country. Dennis
speaks Turkish with a Geordie accent."
Members of Tyneside Community Action for Refugees
staged a protest on behalf of the family outside
Government Office for the North East headquarters in
Newcastle on Tuesday.
A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office will
only return those who the asylum decision making and
independent appeals processes have found do not need
international protection and who can therefore
return safely to their country of origin. Those who
would face persecution or other ill-treatment on
return are granted asylum or other forms of
appropriate protection and for them the question of
removal does not arise."
icnetwork co.uk
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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