Original message from

Dear Supporters

Please take a few minutes to help this young girl who is in
need of urgent assistance from you.


Meltem and her mum are asking you to ask the German authorities not to
receive them into Germany and they are asking you to ask British
Airways not to fly them to Dusseldorf this Thursday.

TAKE ACTION NOW

1. EMAIL THE GERMAN AUTHORITIES using the model email below to: Mr
Eckhart Will, Email:  Eckehard.Will@bamf.bund.de . (please
copy/amend/write your own version)

2. FAX BRITISH AIRWAYS using the model fax message asking them not
to carry out the removal of Meltem and Cennet Avcil from the UK . Fax
: British Airways Chief Executive Officer on 0208 738 9801 Fax :
British Airways Press Office on 0208 738 9838. (please copy/amend/write your
own version, quoting flight Flight No. BA0936 from Heathrow Airport
Terminal 1, to Dusseldorf , Germany , at 7.30 HRS on Thursday 15 November
2007)

Thank you for your time and support,

Model Email



FAO Mr Eckhart Will

German Third Country Unit

Germany


Dear Mr Will,

YOUR REF: 2728437: CENNET AVCIL AND MELTEM AVCIL


I am writing to ask that your Government excuse itself
from the responsibility of allowing the United Kingdom Government to
remove Mrs Cennet Avcil and her 14-year-old daughter Meltem from the UK to
Germany this British airways Thursday 15th November 2007, 7am Terminal
1, , Heathrow to Dusseldorf. The Avcil family
has exceptional and compassionate grounds for not being returned to
Germany :

a) Meltem Avcil is 14 years old and about to turn 15 on November
21st 2007.

b) She has been in school in the UK for six years

c) Mrs Avcil and her daughter have never absconded

d) Both mother and child have been detained like criminals for
almost three months. She has had no appropriate schooling since being
incarcerated. She has had poor medical and social support. Her mental and psychological state has deteriorated, from being a normal, healthy bubbly teenager to a scared, depressed, lonely
young girl, turning to self harm (she began cutting herself a few days
ago).

I believe that it is in the best interests of this child to be returned to her home in Doncaster, the familiarity of her school, friends and teachers, and to have access
within this comfort zone to psychiatrists to assist her in returning to
her former happy self.


I strongly believe that it would be against the family’s human rights to
be returned to a country with which they have absolutely no connection.


I therefore respectfully request that the German government allow this young girl to return to
her community, friends, her school and most of importantly of all, the
only country that she has ever known to be truly her home.



Yours sincerely,



Name:

Address:

City:

Postcode:

Country:

Date:



______________________________________________________________





Model Fax Message



To: British Airways

Chief Executive Officer: 0208 738 9801

British Airways Press Office on 0208 738 9838



Dear Sir / Madam,



Forced Removal of Cennet Avcil and Meltem Avcil

7.30 HRS on Thursday 15 November 2007

British Airways Flight No. BA0936 from London Heathrow , UK to
Dusseldorf , Germany


I urge you to not carry out the forced removal of this family on your
airline, whose case has now been picked up by the UK press and is
gathering support all over the UK and parts of Europe .

The Avcil family has exceptional and compassionate grounds for not
being returned to Germany :


a) Meltem Avcil is 14 years old and about to turn 15 on November
21st 2007.

b) She has been in school in the UK for six years

c) Mrs Avcil and her daughter have never absconded

d) Both mother and child have been detained like criminals for
almost three months. She has had NO schooling since being incarcerated. She has had poor medical and social support. Her mental and psychological state has deteriorated, from
being a normal, healthy bubbly teenager to a scared, depressed, lonely
young girl, turning to self harm (She began cutting herself a few days
ago)

I believe that it is in the best interests of this child to be returned to her home in Doncaster,
the familiarity of her school, friends and teachers, and to have access
within this comfort zone to psychiatrists to assist her in returning to
her former happy self.

I strongly believe that it would be against the family’s human rights to
be returned to a country they have absolutely no connection with.

I therefore urge you to not carry out the forced removal of this family
on your airline.

Yours Sincerely,



Name:

Address:

City:

Postcode:

Country:

Date:

___________________________________________



The original appeal for Meltem from Positive Action in Housing is detailed below.





URGENT ACTION ALERT



PLEASE HELP 14 YEAR OLD SCHOOL GIRL MELTEM AVCIL TO BE RELEASED FROM
DETENTION BEFORE HER 15TH BIRTHDAY ON NOVEMBER 21, 2007.



“For education, I get maths for 9 year olds, and then jigsaw puzzles,
no they don’t give you an education, and even if they did I don’t think
u can get educated in there when you know its really a prison.”


Please help 14 year old Doncaster schoolgirl, Meltem Avcil, and her
mother to be released from Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, where they has
been held for OVER THREE MONTHS since August 2007.

Meltem and her mum are Kurdish. Meltem speaks with an English accent.

They fled persecution from Turkey to Germany in 2001. They were refused
asylum in Germany and sought asylum in the UK . Meltem’s most
formative years have been spent here. She fears being deported back to Germany
, and then Turkey , a country she says she simply does not know
anymore.


In August 2007, 12 immigration officials carried out a dawn raid on the
Avcil’s family home in Doncaster . They were then taken to a police
station, and driven in a caged van for 2 ½ hours to Yarls wood detention
centre.

On Thursday 1 November 2007, Meltem and her mother were refused bail
for a FIFTH time. We understand that the judge refused bail because she
wanted medical evidence to show that Meltem ‘does not want to stay
Yarl’s Wood’. It is unbelievable that a judge would want ‘medical evidence’
to ascertain whether a 14 year old girl - who has committed no crime
whatsoever - would want to stay in Yarl’s Wood, especially when that
child is stood right in front of you at a bail hearing, and can speak
English without an interpreter and is intelligent enough to understand any
questions the judge might wish to put to her about whether she wants to
stay in Yarls Wood.

We are very concerned about Meltem who has been incarcerated at Yarl’s
Wood for more than three months now and no one in authority seems to
be concerned about this or the psychological trauma she is suffering as
a result. After being refused bail the fourth time, she began to
self-harm and cut her arms, something she has never done before. Some of you
will remember the Ay family, who were detained at Dungavel immigration
centre in Scotland for more than a year. They were granted indefinite
leave to live in Germany on humanitarian grounds, after psychiatric
reports showed they had been psychologically traumatised during their
incarceration at Dungavel.

Speaking tearfully of her experience at Yarls Wood, Meltem said:
“I feel like I’ve committed a crime or something, I feel ashamed. They
treat people like animals in here – it’s no different from a jail. I’ve
been living I this country for six yrs now and they want to deport me
back to a country I don’t even know.

“For education, I get maths for 9 year olds, and then jigsaw puzzles,
no they don’t give you n education, and even if they did I don’t think u
can get educated in there when you know its really a prison.

“I saw an officer slapping a little two year old baby because he was
playing with lights. And a mother crying for her baby because they
wouldn’t take her to healthcare but baby was vomiting and had a high
temperature. The officers were being really nasty like they’re just lowering
them down saying words to make them sadder.”

Meltem went onto say she missed her school friends, and her teachers,
including Mrs Jones (English), Mr Richardson (Science) and Miss Westoby
(Drama). She said:
“At school I was good at science, maths, and history, I wanted to
become a doctor. My teachers, they were really kind, and really tried to
help me. I miss them all so much, just being a schoolchild and doing
normal things, with my friends Kirsty, Charlotte and Natalie. .. I want just
to get out of here and see my teachers and friends again. I want to
stop seeing my mum so sad and crying”.

Meltem’s school was unaware until two days ago that she was still in
the UK , or that she was in Yarl’s Wood. At her school, Hall Cross Lower
School , in Doncaster , Meltem was described by her teachers as a
“Number 1 student”.


This email was prepared by WRW in partnership with Positive Action in
Housing, Scotland, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
and the SOAS Detainee Support Group in London.