The Journal (Newcastle, UK)
December 12, 2009 Saturday

Four A-levels And Places Offered At University, But Teenager Lives In Fear

TEENAGER Lusine Manukyan knows more than most the agony of negotiating
the asylum system.

The 18-year-old, pictured left, fled with her family to Wallsend,
North Tyneside, from Uzbekistan two years ago.

The Christian family-of-four fear for their safety if they are forced
to go back and face radical Muslims who put their lives in danger.

But the Home Office want the Manukyans to return to Uzbekistan or to
Armenia, where mum Nonna and her two children have citizenship.

Now MP for North Tyneside Stephen Byers has thrown his weight behind
their case, which is still pending.

Lusine, who has won places at UK universities to study medicine after
a string of top A-levels, said: "My family faces deportation and the
possibility of being split between Armenia and Uzbekistan. It is the
members of the local faith community that are campaigning for me to be
allowed to stay, to be granted safety and to remain part of the
community which has become home.

"My brother and I had another important route for belonging to the
community, through school.

"I both went to a faith school to St Thomas More RC High School. When
I started school here two and a half years ago, I spoke very little
English.

"It’s been a hard journey for me, but the school and my school friends
could not have been more supportive, and it was a really positive
experience.

"They really helped me over the language barrier and to adjust to the
system here, and supported my ambitions to achieve something.

"Thanks to their support and my hard work I managed to get four
A-levels this summer, and secured places at four universities to study
my passion of medicine and biochemistry.

"But I haven’t been able to start university this year like I had so
hoped to, alongside my school friends.

"That option has not been open to me because as an asylum seeker, I
cannot access higher education, despite my school advocating for me. I
am not allowed to work either, so I have continued to immerse myself
in voluntary work.

"The Home Office has not accepted that my family needs sanctuary. I
can’t understand why they do not believe my family’s situation.

"Unless it is because the Government favours statistics that prove it
is tough on asylum, that it is reducing the numbers seeking asylum,
and increasing the numbers deported.

"For asylum seekers here the system can be inhumane, not from some
misunderstanding but as policy, forcing them into poverty and
destitution and often back into danger again.

"Politicians and the national media make scapegoats out of asylum
seekers in immigration debates, or present negative stereotypes."

The Home Office has not accepted that my family needs sanctuary