The thundering knock came early in the morning. It was 6.30am. Without waiting for an answer the security chain across the door was smashed from its fittings. Feet thundered up the staircase. The five children, all under the age of 10, were alarmed to be woken from their sleep by the dozen burly strangers who burst into their bedrooms, switched on the lights and shouted at them to get up.
This is not a police state. It is Manchester in supposedly civilised Britain in the 21st century. There is a clue to what this is about in the names of the children: Nardin, who is 10; Karin who is seven; the three-year-old twins Bishoy and Anastasia, and their one-year-old baby sister Angela.
Their parents, Hany and Samah Mansour, are Coptic Christians who fled to the UK after a campaign of persecution by a group of Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt whose friends in the secret police tortured Hany. But even though six Coptic Christians were shot dead by Muslim extremists only last week in a town not far from their home, the British Government has decided that it does not believe them. And so Britain's deportation police have launched another of their terrifying dawn raids on sleeping children.
Tuesday 12 January 2010
An immigration story you won't read in the tabloids
In today's Independent, a feature from Paul Vallely about children in immigration detention centres:
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thanks for printing this.
ReplyDeletethat shooting didn't really get much publicity did it?
we have to get people to start understanding why asylum seekers are seeking asylum. we need people to start seeing people as people and children as children.
I pray for the day when tabloids actually start differentiating between immigrants, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. There's an argument for less immigration (not a terribly good one, but it exists), but who's evil enough to want to turn away asylum seekers? Let alone asylum seekers who are CHILDREN. Christ, it makes you sick to the teeth some days.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine had a friend who was sent back to their orginally country after failing to go through whatever proof of needing to seek ayslm we have here, and is most likely going to be killed back there.
ReplyDeleteI find it quite scary the amount of people who don't understand what an asylum seeker actually is, or what they actually are escaping from. Personally, I'm more proud to be in a country which will help those who are in danger of being killed for their religon, beliefs, or sexuality. More proud than being in a country full of british blood and outdated traditions.