from Britain
says it fears recriminations back in Iran because police found a copy of the novel, “The Satanic Verses,” in the family’s home.
The family’s asylum claim has been denied so Mehrshad Sadeghi, 10, his 18-year-old brother, Ahmed, and their mother, Farah Ghaemi, are set for deportation.
A fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie was announced by then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 when the controversial book, which the regime believed made blasphemous references to the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in general, was first published.
The family has garnered a lot of support, including the backing of 11 members of parliament, eight members of the House of Lords and numerous others. But the UK Border Agency (UKBA) announced the family’s asylum claim was based on “a fabrication” and said the family had no right to remain in the country.
Earlier this month, Mehr-shad told a television interviewer he had spent his summer vacation in 2008 locked up in the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Center in Bedfordshire.
“At first, when I saw it, I knew it was a bad place.… It was like a proper prison, but it wasn’t a prison, it just looked like it,” he said, describing the place in which he was detain as a place with “hundreds” of locked doors and barbed wire atop a “massive fence” so high that “even Spider-Man can’t climb it.” Mehrshad said he once returned home after UKBA had searched his home and found his teddy bear cut open at the belly. “They were looking for our passports,” he said.
The Child M Must Stay campaign has been launched by Britons supporting the family to try to reverse the deportation order. The group says the mother has suffered a nervous breakdown and been sent to a psychiatric hospital for four weeks.
A spokeswoman from the primary school Mehrshad has been attending in Manchester told The Guardian: “We remain extremely concerned for the welfare of Mehrshad and his family and their mental health. The two periods in detention have had a very negative effect on Mehrshad. His learning and progress at school deteriorated dramatically and there were marked changes in his confidence, attitude and behavior following each period in detention. He was withdrawn and anxious.”
The spokeswoman said, “With support and encouragement, Mehrshad has begun to succeed at school again. But we remain very concerned about the impact this situation continues to have on him. He is in a constant state of anxiety about immigration officers coming to his house and is worried by the effect this has had on his mum. Mehrshad is a valued member of the school community and we all hope for the very best outcome for him.”
Despite appeals from members of the community, Jo Liddy, UKBA’s northwest regional director, maintained that the family would be deported. “We have considered the Ghaemis’ applications and our decision to refuse them has been upheld by the court, who found the family had fabricated their claim,” Liddy said.
“We would rather families like Mrs Ghaemi’s make a voluntary departure from the UK when they have no basis to remain here, but enforced returns are necessary to uphold the integrity of the immigration system. We only remove individuals that are found by the UK Border Agency and, where appropriate, by the courts, not to be in need of protection.”
Meanwhile, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is seeking cabinet approval to end the practice of detaining children in immigration removal centers.
On December 1, the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader told the organization Citizens UK that he was near being able to announce the end of child detention.
The week before the May election, in which Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron were voted into office, the pair attended a rally held by Citizens UK and promised to end child detention. Clegg is under pressure to make an announcement after the passing of two previous deadlines.
Last year, there were 1,085 children detained in the country. Clegg described the detention of so many children as a “moral outrage.” He has reportedly pushed to overcome opposition to the policy from the UKBA. UKBA officials complained that Clegg’s proposal will make it more difficult to deport families with children.
The website for the Child M Must Stay campaign is: http://www.childm.org.uk/
by Grace Nasri