The Ozbay family has won the right to remain in this country. Veli Ozbay said "We are all very pleased and happy. This means a lot to my whole family. Now we have nothing to worry about any more."
The Kurdish Alevi family -Hanim and Huseyin, and their sons, Ali, Veli (16) and Semih (14) fled persecution in Turkey to Northern Cyprus. In Northern Cyprus they faced attack and torture from Turkish soldiers, so they fled again, this time to England where they have lived four 4 years. The Home Office's view was that Northern Cyprus was a safe country so they should be deported. In response a campaign was launched, supported by tenants of the Six Acres Estate in Finsbury Park, the Compton School in Finchley attended by the boys, a local church and anti-racist organisations. We had numerous pickets of the Home Office attended by lots of children from Compton School, who exuberantly sung, shouted and probably gave every Home Office worker a leaflet about the plight of the family.
The campaign regularly leafleted and collected more than 7,000 signatures on the petition near where the family lived and around the school..
After two years of campaigning and legal work by North Islington Law Centre, the Home office accepted that as the family were not Cypriot citizens as they had not spent enough time there, so that if they were deported it would be to Turkey. At that point we thought we had won.
But no, then the Home Office wrote saying that they did not have evidence of persecution of Kurdish people in the particular part of Turkey which the Ozbay's came from! So the campaign went on.
The family launched an appeal which was begun on May 5th. They heard Hanim'S evidence and the case was adjourned. Even the Home Office's own presenting officer recognised the distress caused to Hanim by recounting her experiences in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.
Then on July 28th the family were granted indefinite leave to renain.
Stressful
Despite all our support, it has been a terribly stressful time for the family. Their relief and joy at their victory was tremendous to experience.
Nobody should be forced to go through that worry and pain. It shames New Labour that the threat of deportation was not lifted the day the Labour Government took office.
As John Stewart from the Ozbay family campaign said "This victory shows that campaigning does make a difference.
The government's Immigration and Asylum Bill will make the conditions of those who seek asylum in the UK even worse and will increase the need for people to come together to campaign against deportation."