Glasgow Herald

6th of August, 2003

‚We are astonished and shocked you have
detained a family for one year‘ (PRO ASYL)

Anger as Ay children put on plane and deported to Germany

LORNA MARTIN and LUCY BANNERMAN

YURDIGAL Ay was the first to board flight EXS6770 from Stansted to Frankfurt yesterday morning. She was followed by her youngest daughter, Medya, eight, wearing a pink cap, and then Newroz, 13, Dilovan, 12, and Beriwan, 14.

For their first ever flight, they were accompanied by an army of security and immigration officials and other failed asylum seekers.

Shortly before they boarded the plane, a member of the airport security staff told the awaiting photographers pitched on a nearby hillside that the Ay family would not be getting on the 10am flight and had, in fact, been flown to Germany at 8am.

The photographers didn’t pack up their gear and head home.

Earlier, Beriwan had said that they would refuse to get on the plane. But on a phone call on Monday night, she said she was afraid because an official at Tinsley house detention centre said they may be handcuffed.

So they didn’t resist. Instead, they did as they were told, presumably following instructions to face away from the photographers.

At 10.12am, the chartered jet took off, flying past a Union flag fluttering in the breeze and into the clear blue sky.

After four years, one month and 17 days in Britain, the final quarter of it locked up in a former prison in Lanarkshire, the Kurdish asylum seekers were yesterday deported to Germany for the next round in their battle to find a safe home.

It is understood they left Frankfurt airport at around 4pm and were taken to a refuge run by an evangelical church on the outskirts of the city.

Aamer Anwar, their Scottish lawyer, said he would lodge an appeal against the British government’s decision to deport the children and would be preparing medical reports to send to Germany as part of their appeal to prevent the family being deported to Turkey, where they fear persecution and where Mr Ay was sent over a year ago. He has not been heard of since.

Klemens Ross, the family’s German solicitor, said he would make a special asylum application today.

„The thing is it’s very difficult because the husband was sent to Turkey,“ he said. „But we will make a new appeal.

„I think it is terrible to keep people there in prison for over a year and we will need to find some doctors very quickly and also lodge a special application.“

Karl Kopp, director of European affairs with Pro Asyl, a German human rights organisation, said there was shock at the way the British government had treated the Ay children.

„We are astonished and shocked that you have detained a family for more than one year,“ he said.

„I would say Germany is the most restrictive country in Europe in terms of asylum – there is a lot of detention and a lot of deportation – but still this could not have happened in Germany. To detain children is incredible.“

He said he was relieved when he heard that the family had left the airport because there was a risk they could have been sent on immediately to Turkey.

„They are still facing the threat of deportation. The only reason the German authorities couldn’t or didn’t deport them immediately was because they weren’t prepared.

„They didn’t know that they were coming and they didn’t have any papers. But there is a lot to do now. Together with their lawyer, who is very experienced in these cases, and other welfare organisations, we will urge the government to consider the health and psychological conditions of the family.

„We have the impression that especially the children are traumatised after this horrible year of detention. That could maybe give us one chance to make a new appeal.

„We will need to get a lot of public support. It is a great help that (politicians) from your country made this strong intervention in Berlin.“

Jutta Graf, an assistant to Josef Winkler MP, the German Green party speaker on immigration issues, said she would also urge the government to grant exceptional leave for the family to remain in the country on medical grounds.

She had earlier met Rosie Kane, the Scottish socialist MSP. Later, Ms Kane said she was urging a Scottish Executive minister to fly to Germany to support the campaign.

She said: „It is completely unacceptable that ministers should wash their hands of this matter and stand back and watch a group of traumatised children forced onto a plane to be deported to Germany.

„Jack McConnell or one of his deputies would be of enormous assistance to the Ay family in Germany, helping to get their status resolved and removing the threat to send them on to Turkey.“

She said that some German politicians had expressed their disbelief that the family had been kept behind bars in Scotland.

Mark Ballard, the Green MSP, condemned the government for its handling of the case.

„There’s a possibility due to health and psychological effects of being in prison for the crime of being an asylum seeker, they might get exceptional leave to remain in Germany,“ he said.

„It could be a blessing in disguise but it is a really damning indictment of this country’s asylum policy.“

Neil Durking, spokesperson for the human rights group Amnesty International, said that due to the high-profile nature of the case, the family could be in increased danger of persecution if they were returned to Turkey.

He said: „If you make an asylum claim it is not only a claim of persecution, but also becomes a public claim and people are likely to become even more persecuted.

„You are saying that human rights violations occur in a particular place. Therefore, there is a heightened risk that a certain amount of revenge will be meted out on you when you return.“

Ursula Sinderman, a counsellor at the Arbeiterwohlsarft (a non-governmental welfare service) was shocked by Britain’s treatment of the Ay family.

She said there would be an outcry in Germany if asylum seekers and their children were detained in such conditions for over a year.

„For historical reasons, I don’t think they could do that,“ she said. „In Germany, they (asylum seekers) are not held in a camp. They are given documents, then are told after three to four weeks of the decision. I don’t understand why Britain held them ( the Ay family) for so long.“

Chisholm refuses to answer questions

– Aug 6th