facebook group helps nigerian family

Facebook group helps Nigerian family avoid deportation

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Student protest halts family's deportation

Steven Morris

Monday January 28, 2008

The Guardian - London

A family of seven threatened with deportation has been reprieved

after a campaign that began in a Devon classroom, spread around the

world, and led to the government being bombarded with thousands of

protest letters.

Last night more than 10,000 people had joined a Facebook group

devoted to saving the family from being sent back to Nigeria, and

the youngsters who launched the campaign from a sixth-form common

room vowed to keep up the pressure.

The mother, Helen, who has asked for the family name not to be

published, and her six children had lived in Plymouth for four

years. They claimed asylum because they feared they would be

persecuted if they were sent back. Helen was afraid her 14-year-old

son, Emmanuel, could die in Nigeria because he has sickle cell

anaemia and she could not afford the medication.

Friends of the family at Stoke Damerel community college in

Plymouth were outraged when they were seized by immigration

officials and held in an immigration centre, ready to be flown back

to Africa. Alex Stupple-Harris, 17, who was in the same year as two

of the brothers, Mac and Winston, told how he went back to school

on the evening he heard about his friend's plight and began

printing off protest letters. They wrote to MPs, the Home Office

and even executives of the airline that was to fly the family home.

The campaign quickly spread through the school. "Thirteen-year-old

boys were coming up to me and asking for 150 letters. They would

come back with them all signed. The Facebook campaign has also been

amazing."

The family was permitted to stay for three more weeks and on

Wednesday officials are to look at the case again.

Stupple-Harris said he was sure that the campaign had helped to

give the family a second chance. "The strength of feeling has been

immense. We're going to carry on, even if the hearing that's

beginning on Wednesday goes the wrong way."

The family were described as "model citizens" by Father Sam

Philpott, of St Peter's Church, Stonehouse, where they worshipped.

He said they would be hugely missed if they were sent back to

Nigeria.

Helen has worked as a volunteer for the Devon and Cornwall Refugee

Support Council and as a university researcher. She is a governor

of a primary school in Plymouth. The Home Office will not talk

about individual cases but said: "We only remove people whose

asylum claims have been dismissed by an independent judge. Families

with children are detained only where this is absolutely necessary

for as short a period as possible."

Helen claims she has been told she may be killed if she returns to

Nigeria. Stupple-Harris last spoke to her on Friday. She is

refusing most food but taking a little nourishment in case the

family is suddenly flown from the UK. He said: "Despite everything

she was on good form. We spent most of the conversation laughing,

which sums her up."

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