- The Observer,
- Sunday August 11 2002
The youngsters were held on Friday during a visit to Farid and Feriba Ahmadi at Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow Airport. The Ahmadi family had taken refuge in Ghausia Jamia Mosque at Lye in the West Midlands, and had been living there for 28 days when police used a battering ram to enter the building on 25 July.
The children had been staying with friends of the family and lawyers acting for the family applied for an emergency order for the children's freedom in the early hours of yesterday morning. But Home Secretary David Blunkett refused to release them from detention until the Government had had the opportunity to appeal. The two youngsters cannot be named for legal reasons. The appeal judge at the High Court decided that the Home Secretary's powers overrode those of the family court, and therefore the children must now remain in custody while the Ahmadis fight their deportation.
Last night the Ahmadis received their final deportation order. The whole family will be put on a flight from Birmingham to Munich on Wednesday. The Home Office wants to deport the family to Germany, where they first claimed asylum after fleeing from Afghanistan. But the Ahmadis claim they faced racial harassment during their time in Germany.
The family's lawyer, Pierre Makhlouf, said the judge had not looked at medical evidence that showed that the Ahmadis had been traumatised by their experience in Afghanistan and would find it difficult to give their children the care they needed without the support network they had in Britain.
Mrs Ahmadi told The Observer: 'I never thought England would be like this. I had some hope when the children were somewhere safe. But now they are in this prison. What hope can I have for the future?'
