27 January 2005 - Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has called on the government to halt deportation proceedings against a Kurdish family from Portsmouth who face torture and imprisonment without trial if they are forced to return to Syria.

Her intervention comes just days before a rally and march in support of Amina, Eva (16) and Lorin (14) Sulaiman’s right to stay in the community, which has been organised by their Portsmouth neighbours and friends and family of Lorin’s classmates at Mayfield School.

In a message of support to the rally (which will meet at noon, this Saturday, January 29^th, at St Mary’s Church, Fratton Road, Portsmouth before marching to Guildhall Square), Dr Lucas said: “In the years that Amina, Eva and Lorin Sulaiman have lived in Portsmouth they have truly integrated into the community and begun to build a life for themselves in a safe, secure, environment.”

“Deporting them to Syria will expose them to political persecution, torture and imprisonment and would fly in the face of international law and the interests and wishes of the family themselves and the local community – and we must not allow this to happen.”

The family, who have two family members in prison in Syria and two living in Birmingham having been previously granted refugee status, were due to be deported in October last year, following their detention at Tinsley House removal centre in Portsmouth. The Home Office released the family, stayed the deportation and pledged to review the case after Amina was taken into hospital and 3,500 local people signed a 50-page petition organised by Lorin’s schoolmates demanding they be allowed to remain.

The family has campaigned for the rights of the 150,000 Kurdish people denied nationality in Syria and fled after Amina’s husband Mohammed and son Mosoud were imprisoned in September 2002. On their journey to the UK they were separated from their brother Diara, whom they have neither seen nor heard of since.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International have warned that women and children who have campaigned for Kurdish rights are at risk from persecution at the hands of the Syrian authorities, and documented the cases of 20 children – in cases similar to that of Eva and Lorin – who have been subjected to torture including electric shocks, extraction of toenails, sexual assaults and beatings with electric cables and rifle butts.

Dr Lucas added: “Continuing to deny this family the right to remain in the UK represents an attack on many of the values this government claims to hold dear: the family, local community, international law – and even common sense.

“We have heard just this week how a Tory Britain under Michael Howard would withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention and close the shutters on families like the Sulaimans seeking refuge from persecution here.

“This case demonstrates that, though the rhetoric is different, the UK under Tony Blair is governed by the same lack of compassion and shared humanity. The Home Office must reconsider its decision and abandon its attempt to force this family into the hands of the Syrian government’s torturers.”

She has written to Immigration Minister Des Browne urging him to use his personal discretion granting the family the right to stay in the Portsmouth community they now call home.

ENDS