Last-ditch bid halts family’s deportation

A FAMILY of African asylum-seekers living in Sheffield have been spared deportation for the time being after an eleventh hour intervention by their supporters.
Priviledge Thulambo, aged 39, and her student daughters Valerie, 20, and Lorraine, 18, were due to be flown out of the UK at 7pm yesterday on a Kenyan Air-ways plane.

But yesterday morning, as the trio were about to be driven to Heathrow airport, an application for Judicial Review was lodged with the Administrative Court and registered just after midday.

The legal development means their case will be re-examined by the courts, and the family will be kept at Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire to await further news.

Today supporter Justin Lister said: “It was all quite eleventh hour, but it had to be because the courts will only process applications for judicial review if they relate to a deportation flight within the following 24-hour period. It had to be applied for on the morning they were due to be deported.

“It is a victory to some extent, but it’s more about the fact that at last this case is going to be handled with proper legal representation.

“We are now hoping to get the family granted bail so they can leave Yarl’s Wood while the case is reviewed.”

Priviledge, Valerie and Lorraine, who are originally from Zimbabwe, were taken earlier this month from their home on Heavygate Road, Walkley, after their applications for asylum were refused.

They arrived in Britain eight years ago following the deaths in Zimbabwe of three relatives – opponents of president Robert Mugabe’s regime. Priviledge, who was born in the capital city Harare, says her brother was killed by being forced to drink rat poison.

But because they had to flee their homeland using fake passports showing Malawi as their country of origin, the British authorities planned to send them back there.

Supporters say that is a “death sentence” – because the trio will inevitably be sent on to Zimbabwe, where they face torture and death.

Around 1,340 people have so far signed an online petition set up on the social networking site Facebook. – The Star