Popular local Kurd faces deportation
A "MOTIVATED" member of the Hastings community faces a return to his native Turkey, despite fears his politics could see him arrested on arrival.
Kurdish asylum seeker Sebahattin Soylemez, 34, was taken into custody by immigration officials under E28 of the Immigration Act on June 27, and moved on the same day to a holding centre at Eastern Docks in Dover.
He had lived in St Leonards for about a year, and at the time of his detention was trying to establish an organisation in the Kurdish community called United Kurdish Action, highlighting the plight of their ethic group in Turkey.
He is now threatened with a return to the country, and fears his ethnicity and political views could lead to persecution and arrest.
Members of the Hastings Kurdish Welfare association have already attracted 63 signatures to a petition to keep him in the country.
Association member Yasser Dirki said: "He has a lot of support from upstanding members of the Kurdish community in Hastings and St Leonards.
"We've contacted a few lawyers but they think it's a losing case. It's all down to the wish of the good people of Hastings."
Sebahattin was an active member of the community, and had helped set up classes for Kurdish people to learn English at Chapel Park Online, at the Chapel Park Community Centre.
Tricia Owens, manager of Chapel Park Online, said: "He was interested in getting English classes for the Kurdish community. He was instrumental in getting everything started off.
"He was very motivated in working in the Kurdish community, and a very pleasant person. It's a great shame he's no longer around."
A Home Office report into the human rights situation in Turkey concluded: "Although Turkish citizens of Kurdish ethnic origins may face some unequal treatment or discrimination this does not generally reach the level of persecution.
"Therefore it is unlikely that applicants in this category would qualify for asylum or humanitarian protection and such claims are likely to be clearly unfounded."
However, a report by Freedom House in January stated "torture and ill-treatment by officials continue to be an issue in Turkey".
Sebahattin was moved from Dover at the end of June and is now at Harmandsworth Immigration Removal Centre, near Heathrow Airport.
An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is pending, but friends fear he could be deported before any decision is made.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "All applications for asylum are considered on a case-by-case basis by skilled case workers in line with the Geneva Convention.
"If somebody's asylum application has failed, we would consider it safe to send someone back to their country of origin."
If you wish to sign the petition to keep Sebahattin in Hastings, log on to www.petitiononline.com/soylemez/petition.html.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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