Deportation plea to ‘heartless’ government
THE uncle of three Iraqi children who are facing deportation has urged Home Office chiefs to change their mind.
“Have a heart,” said Aram Faraj. “The children are happy here and have started going to school.
“They like Swansea. They don’t have any problems with people here.
“But they are scared now. They can’t sleep. They feel they are going to Iraq and that they are going to die.”
The three Sedeeq siblings — Mohammed, aged 12, Dani, aged 11, and Marwar, aged five — and their mother, Trifa, fled Iraq in 2015.
They left Erbil, in the north of the country, with their relations, a family called the Rebwahs.
The fathers of both families died while staying at a refugee camp in Bulgaria.
Mr Faraj said he spent nine months in Bulgaria with the families, awaiting permission to bring them back to the UK.
During that time, the mother, Mrs Rebwah, died, leaving four orphans.
Those orphans have been granted a two-and-a-half-year stay in the UK, living with their uncle in Swansea Marina.
But Mohammed, Dani and Marwar, and their mother, who is Mr Faraj’s younger sister, have not been so fortunate.
Mr Faraj, aged 34, who works at a takeaway in Briton Ferry, explained his sister had been living in fear in Iraq on account of her husband’s work as a journalist.
The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases, but a spokesman added: “The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who genuinely need it, and every case is carefully considered on its individual merits.
“Where people establish a genuine need for protection or a well- founded fear of persecution refuge will be granted.”
The Sedeeqs, who currently live in Waun Wen, and the four Rebwah orphans, aged five, eight, 11 and 13, have been helped by Swansea Bloom, an arm of the West Crossbased Linden Church, which helps asylum seekers and refugees to integrate.
Rachel Matthews, of Swansea Bloom, last week said that Mrs Sedeeq and her oldest son suffered trauma-induced seizures.
“The kids are doing great in school but have all lost ground since the Home Office refused (asylum),” she said.
“Seizures have restarted, the children have terrible anxiety about being taken by the police and are having nightmares.”
South Wales West AM Bethan Jenkins has taken up the Sedeeqs’ case, and claimed the UK Government had been “heartless”.
She said last week: “There is nobody in Iraq that could care for them.
“Their uncle is a British citizen and has guardianship, so as a community we can’t understand why the UK Government has decided they cannot stay.”