'Detained pupils are innocent victims'

The headteacher of four young Bradford schoolchildren being removed from the UK with their illegal immigrant parents says they are innocent victims.

Lloyd Mason-Edwards, head of Peel Park Primary, has written to immigration authorities about his concerns and has met officials from the office of Bradford North Labour MP Terry Rooney.

Twins Ziyad and Bahidja Zighem, six, their sister Rahima, four, and three-year-old brother Hani, are being held, along with two-year-old brother Zinedine, and their mother Lazazi Akila, 31, at an immigration removal centre. Their father, Mestah Zighem, 42, is being detained at a separate centre as the family awaits removal back to Algeria.

Mr Mason-Edwards said he had received a call from the father, who had worked at the school as a security guard for several months, on October 20, saying they had been taken from their beds at 6am, put in a car and driven to an immigration centre.

Mr Mason-Edwards said: “My concern is for the children. They are the innocent victims.

“They have been held in captivity for 33 days and I am concerned about their physical and mental welfare.

“Their classmates are missing them. They are bright, lovely and engaging children who would make fantastic British citizens. They have done nothing wrong.”

He added: “The Government says that every child matters. But it seems these children don’t matter, even though they were born and brought up in the UK.”

In his letter to the authorities Mr Mason-Edwards said the older children had developed academically and socially extremely well and a great deal of resources had been invested in educating and making them feel part of the community. They had developed strong bonds with teachers and the other children.

In correspondence with Mr Zighem’s solicitors, the UK Border Agency said he was an “overstayer”, having failed to leave the UK after the expiry of a six-month family reunion visa granted in 2000. It said an asylum and human rights claim by his wife was refused in January 2004, as was an appeal three months later.

A spokesman for the Agency said: “We only seek to remove families who are in the UK unlawfully after independent courts have agreed they have no further right to remain in the UK.

“We would much rather that failed asylum seekers accepted that fact and left voluntarily.”

Back

© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk