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UK:
Kurdish girl, 14, released from detention after health concerns |
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UK: Kurdish girl, 14, released from
detention after health concerns
24.11.2007
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November
24, 2007
A 14-year-old Kurdish asylum-seeker who escaped
deportation to Germany this week was finally
released from detention last night after serious
concerns were raised about her mental health. Meltem
Avcil and her mother are understood to have left
Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in
Bedfordshire before being taken to bed-and-breakfast
accommodation in Kent.
The Home Office has been trying to deport Meltem and
her mother to Germany, where their asylum
application was first refused, despite the fact that
for the past six years Meltem has been educated in
the UK, and is now fluent in English.
Last week The Independent reported that an attempt
to remove the mother and daughter using a private
security escort team was abandoned after a British
Airways pilot refused to let them fly on grounds of
health and safety. In a second aborted removal
attempt this week it is believed the Home Office had
chartered a private jet.
But doctors who have examined Meltem in Bedford
hospital said they were very concerned about her
mental health. The Avcil family, originally from
Turkey, were visited by the children's commissioner
who is believed to have brought their case to the
attention of the Home Office.
Meltem, who spent three months in Yarl's Wood, said
she was "very happy" to be released and now intended
to travel back to Doncaster where the family had
lived for six years and where they could be reunited
with friends and supporters. "I am so happy I think
I will burst. This is my best moment ever. I want to
say thank you to the children's commissioner for not
forgetting me," she added.
Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in
Housing, who led the campaign, said: "We welcome and
celebrate Meltem's release." She added that 1,583
supporters in Britain, Germany and France had
written to express their outrage at her detention. www.ekurd.net
The release of Meltem and her mother followed
criticism of the Government's use of detention in
child asylum cases. A group of European MPs visiting
three detention centres in the UK expressed concern
over the length of time children were detained.
A Border and Immigration Agency spokesman said:
"Detention is used only where necessary and this is
especially true for families with children.
Depending upon the individual circumstances of each
case, we will always endeavour to keep families
together."
independent co.uk
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