A PRIMARY school is battling to save a family of seven asylum seekers from deportation.
Coptic Christians Mr Mansour, his wife and children, were seized by armoured immigration officers in a dawn swoop on their home last Wednesday.
They now face being sent back to Egypt where Mr Mansour says he had been persecuted and tortured over his religious beliefs.
Parents and teachers from Our Lady’s Primary on Whalley Road are campaigning for their release.
The family were still in a holding centre at Gatwick Airport this week having received no explanation for a decision not to deport them on Saturday as originally intended. Officials - accompanied by Manchester police - burst into the family’s house on Quantock Street, Moss Side, while they were sleeping and took away the father in one van and the mother and bewildered children in another.
The Mansours were allowed to change out of their pyjamas but were not permitted to take spare clothing.
They were initially due to be put on a BA flight back to Cairo last Saturday.
Campaigners, who claim they are fighting against time, have emailed local MP Tony Lloyd, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Home Secretary Alan Johnson, Amnesty International and even The Queen, begging for help.
Two of the children attend the school and the twins are on the list to enrol when they are old enough. Campaigners said a response from Immigration Minister Phil Woolas confirmed that the family would still be banished from Britain.
In an exclusive interview with the Reporter from Gatwick, Mr Mansour said: "They raided my house and what happened was awful.
"We were all sleeping and there was a very loud knock at the door but by the time I had gone downstairs they had already burst through the door and snapped the chain.
"There were about 14 officers in the house and more outside. They told me to sit in a chair and not move.
"They didn’t even let me go to the toilet. It was very frightening and my children were scared."
Hany said he could not understand why the raid was so heavy-handed when it was the Home Office that found the Manchester property for him after he sought asylum and surrendered his passport after fleeing to Britain four years ago. He said he turned up on time every month at a reporting centre in Southport and never missed an appointment.
"I am not a criminal," he said. "I was a businessman in Luxor until the trouble began with Muslim extremists. They burnt my car and destroyed my house and then they tortured me.
"The Home Office will not listen. If I go back something horrible will happen and I fear for my children."
He said his baby was currently sick. "They can detain me if they wish but they should let my wife and children go," he said. "They are innocent."
The Home Office said Immigration favoured dawn "visits" when most people were in bed.
A spokesman said he could not comment on individual cases but that it was not uncommon to arrest asylum seekers who had lost their appeal to remain in the UK and needed to go home.
Manchester police verified that they did accompany immigration officers at 6am at Quantock Street on Wednesday, July 1, as requested.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said the system was ‘humane and compassionate’. He added: "The decision to detain a family before removal only happens as a last resort, keeping the family together. Where an enforced removal is necessary, these are undertaken with extreme care treating those to be removed with courtesy and dignity."
Showing comments 1 to 7 and replies | View All
Jane Akshar (10/07/2009 at 10:58)
And not just foreigners I personally know native born Egyptian Christians as well. Variously a taxi driver, carpenter, hairdresser and engineer and none of them have ever had any problems. Luxor is not like that
Rachel Hockey (10/07/2009 at 18:40)
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4708
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/11604909/
Amy Little (11/07/2009 at 00:11)
A little googling at least suggests that there is a lot of violence and tension there and I’m sure that Jane, as a woman and perhaps mother wouldn’t want her children exposed to that. Of course we shouldn’t play into the hands of islamophobic bigotry, but let’s not suggest that just because everything is not horrendous for everybody it’s all right for everybody.
I think it is disgusting that this family has been treated in this way and anyway, haven’t GMP got things to do catching criminals?
Amy Little,
Levenshulme
Rachel Hockey (11/07/2009 at 18:45)
Henry Mayor (12/07/2009 at 18:07)
Christian Solidarity Worldwide is a UK-based human rights organization investigating persecution of religious minorities, especially Christians. Their Freedom Profile for Egypt,a leaflet published in August 2007(see link at csw.co.uk/country), talks in its introduction of the “growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood” (an Islamist organization) and goes on to say, “non-Muslims in particular have faced increasing abuse during 2006 and 2007 from the security apparatus and political institutions, as well as attacks by mobs”.
The leaflet says that Egypt has harsh “Emergency Laws”, which were being replaced in 2007 by a Terrorism Act. Under those laws “Over the years, security forces have detained Christian minister, missionaries and converts from Islam to Christianity for lengthy periods.” Also “security forces continue to hold suspect without taking them to court or else disobeying the court’s order of release”.
As for communal violence, the leaflet says that, according to the editor of the respected Egyptian Coptic newspaper Watani, it is a “time-bomb that could go off any minute”, then lists eight instances of Muslim attacks on Christians in seven different locations in Egypt between 199 and 2007. It concludes: “Unless the Egyptian government tackles the structural and social bases of these tensions, and seeks to promote a culture of tolerance and equality, Egypt will suffer further communal violence triggered by trivial disputes.”
Dan North (18/07/2009 at 13:31)
Jose Adamson (23/07/2009 at 01:27)
And as scores of people continue to sign the petition every day perhaps our government has a popular mandate that counters the tabloidesque worries about resources.
Perhaps they should deal with problems, government to government- with force if necessary- we did it in Liberia and the Yugoslavia and now in Afghanistan and Iran. Perhaps we should go to Pakistan and Iran next? Or Russia?? Or China??? I'm not sure, but perhpas changing the hearts and minds of people is more effective (and cheaper) than mob violence- even dressed up as "diplomacy".