Evening Post, UK
May 5 2008
I’M BETTER OFF DEAD IF CHILDREN CAN STAY
BY DOMINIC HARRIS D.HARRIS
07:00 – 05 May 2008
Classmates and the heads of a Bristol academy and a primary school are
backing an Armenian family to stay in the city.
Anna Vardanyan and her children Mariam, 14, Norik, 11, and Gayana,
six, face being deported after living in Bristol for six years.
They were taken to an immigration centre at Gatwick airport after a
7am raid on their home in St George.
During their five-day detention, Mariam, a pupil at Bristol’s City
Academy, and her mother tried to commit suicide.
The family are currently back in Bristol awaiting instructions from
the Home Office.
A petition with more than 900 names has been collected from the City
Academy urging the Home Office to allow the family to stay.
Letters have also been sent from academy principal Ray Priest and
Mandy Milsom, head teacher at Summerhill primary school in St George
which Norik and Gayana attend.
The family, who have lived in Bristol since 2002, were due to be
deported to Azerbaijan – a country with which they have no connection
– on Tuesday, but were temporarily released after intervention from
the Armenian embassy.
Ms Vardanyan, 32, is terrified that if she is sent to Azerbaijan she
will be killed because of tensions between there and Armenia.
And she is worried they would be persecuted in Armenia because of her
family’s links with Turkey, two countries locked in conflict.
Ms Vardanyan said: "I will kill myself if I have to go back to Armenia
or to Azerbaijan.
"I am better off dead if it means that my children can have a good
life here.
"We are so happy in Bristol. Everyone is very friendly, and my
children go to school and are well-disciplined.
"Gayana was only two months old when she came here and Norik only
speaks English.
"This is our country now, and they can’t just take us away."
Ms Vardanyan told the Evening Post of the terrifying moment when eight
police officers came to take them away.
She said: "We were all asleep and suddenly there was a loud banging on
the door. Police came in carrying truncheons, gave us bags and told us
to pack our clothes up.
"Then they put us into a van with bars on it, like a cage for
animals. My children are not criminals – why treat them like that?"
Ms Vardanyan said the detention centre was "like a prison".
She said: "We were kept in one tiny room, but we couldn’t sleep and we
were frightened because we couldn’t lock the door.
"Norik cried for four days and said he would remember it all his
life. Mariam tried to cut her wrists with a pair of scissors and I
tried to stop the blood in my arm.
Since their return to Bristol the family has been championed by
Paulette North, a teacher at the City Academy and a member of Bristol
Defend The Asylum Seekers Campaign.
Ms North said: "This is an appalling case. We will be seeking to prove
that the family should stay here because they are part of our
community.
"They have been here for six years and should have the right to a
private and family life here.
"A solicitor is now making representations and a fresh application for
the family to stay."
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: "We do not comment on
individual cases.
"The Government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach
to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to
be here."
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