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| ‘DON’T SEND HIM BACK’ |
Campaign to stop sixth-form pupil’s
deportation to Iran
TEACHERS and pupils have mounted a campaign this week to stop
the deportation of one of their sixth-form students and friend.
Behnam, 19, who studies at Quintin Kynaston in St John’s Wood,
is facing five years in prison and 70 lashes if he is made to return
to his home country of Iran by the Home Office. Behnam and his family
moved to London legitimately in 2002 when his father started working
at a British shipping company. But in August Behnam and his mother
Masoumeh (who have asked for their surnames not to be printed) were
sentenced in absentia by an Iranian Revolutionary Court to five
and seven year jail sentences and lashes if they return.
They were found guilty of collaborating with the Mujahadin, an outlawed
opposition organisation, after the Iranian authorities found anti-government
leaflets were being printed in their Tehran flat while the family
were living in England.
“My friends were staying in our Tehran flat while they finished
their studies,” Behnam said.
“I knew they were Mujahadin but I did not know they were using
the flat to make leaflets and when police raided them they found
their photocopier.”
The men were arrested and questioned by the authorities in April.
Behnam and his mother’s situation worsened when their application
for asylum was rejected in September after Benham’s father
was arrested at Tehran airport on his return to start a new job.
His wife and sons chose to stay in England while Behnam finished
his A-levels at Quintin Kynaston and his father has not been heard
from since. Two of Behnam’s teachers Pauline Levis and David
Davies have been working around the clock since September when Behnam
lost his appeal for asylum.
Ms Levis said: “I am dismayed and outraged by the suffering
this delightful family are going through at the hands, not only,
of the Iranian authorities, but also the British Home Office whose
motto is ‘building a safe, just and tolerant society’.”
The family claimed asylum but despite evidence that included authenticated
documents from the Iranian court their claim was rejected. It again
failed on appeal. A further appeal has been lodged but it is not
yet known if this will even be heard.
Mr Davies has written to the family’s Hampstead and Highgate
MP Glenda Jackson asking for support. While forced deportation should
not take place until an asylum case has been through the High Court,
Ms Levis, a refugee and asylum seeker co-ordinator at the school,
said the family remain concerned: “Dawn raids have been known
to happen while the appeal process is still on going. Next Friday
they must sign in to an immigration officer in Old Street and people
have been known to be picked out from the queue and sent away so
the family are understandably scared.”
A spokesman for Karen Buck, MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington
North, said she would not intervene until the appeal process has
been exhausted. A demonstration is being organised by Behnam’s
friends and teachers at Quintin Kynaston and is expected to take
place next week.
The Home Office have told the family’s lawyer that their case
will be heard at an immigration appeals tribunal within two weeks.
A spokesman for the Home Office said they refused to comment on
individual cases. |
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Angelino's finest are put to the test
WE came across Angelino Wines, sandwiched between two colourful and
aggressively self-promoting Australian wine sellers, at Islington’s
London Wine Event at the end of October.
Its owner is Farrell Anglin, whose imagination was caught by a lecture
on the history of wine making at Southgate College.
FULL STORY
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