home | news l

People of Shetland unite to save failed asylum-seekers from deportation

Furious islanders tell Home Office: ‘We won’t let you take these families from our community’

By Alan Crawford

11 April 2004 - Hazel Minn sits in her aunt and uncle’s house overlooking the clear green waters of the Ura Firth and waits for a knock at the door that would end her dream of a future in Shetland for her children and herself.

Minn studied history at university in Rangoon, in her native Burma, and wants to enter the caring professions or perhaps the hospitality sector in Shetland. Instead, she and her adopted sons Simon, 11, and Vincent, 10, face imminent deportation into the hands of Burma’s military junta after the Home Office rejected her plea for asylum a fortnight ago.

Thirty miles south in the island capital, Lerwick, Tanya Koolmatrie, 30, and her Shetlander partner Davie Thomason, 55, play with their baby boy Magnus-Ché – that’s Ché, as in Ché Guevara – in the house where Thomason’s parents and grandparents lived and died.

Thomason and Koolmatrie, an Aboriginal Australian, met in southeast Australia five years ago, but decided to return to his native land in June 2002 to build a future together. That future looks to be shortlived since Koolmatrie is also facing deportation. Thomason says if Tanya is forced to leave with young Magnie, he will not hesitate to join them, and another young family will have turned their backs on the Northern Isles.

But something is stirring in these islands against the perceived injustice of both cases. Elsewhere in the UK, asylum seekers are demonised and shunned. Here in Shetland a campaign is gathering pace to keep the families in the islands, by means of direct action if necessary. Petitions have appeared in the small community shops dotted throughout Shetland, the Shetland Times has backed their case and there is support from the church and the council. A local MP is seeking a meeting with the new immigration minister to challenge the Home Secretary’s ruling.

Willie Ross, a campaign organiser, said they were not having to work very hard to generate support for both families.

Ross, a civil engineer who came to Shetland from Moray-shire 24 years ago, added: “There’s a lot of us involved who certainly won’t let them forcibly remove Tanya and Magnie or Hazel and the two boys without making a noise about it.”

Shetland’s population is witnessing the same decline as that of the Scottish mainland 200 miles distant, and the bitter irony that neither Koolmatrie nor Minn would seem to constitute the fresh talent sought by the Scottish Executive is lost on nobody here. But there is more to the vociferous reaction. Shetland isn’t immune to racism, yet the enforced expulsion of visitors to these islands, especially ones keen to live and work in the community, breaks a centuries-old tradition of welcoming strangers.

And the fact that Shetland is still a small, if spread-out community of around 21,000 souls – down from 24,000 in the oil heyday – means these families are not faceless individuals but real people with names, homes, cares and hopes, known to those around them. That an authority 800 miles away is dictating who stays in these communities rankles further.

Sitting quietly in the small council development of Stucca, in the village of Hillswick, Minn seems paralysed by the prospect of leaving the house that has been her home for the last 23 months. As she watches patches of sun glinting off the waters of the voe and sheets of rain drifting in off the Atlantic, Minn says she loves the peace and quiet of Shetland.

“I like the people. They’re simple people. They’re honest and willing to help.”

Her adopted sons are popular and doing well at school. They all live with Minn’s Burmese aunt Lillian and her husband Bert Armstrong, residents of Shetland for 14 years.

The Minn family story is a complex one of ill-health, misfortune and poverty in Rangoon. Hazel says all she wants is “a decent life for the boys”.

She applied for political asylum since, as a student, she was involved in the pro-democracy protests of 1998. Her application was refused. An appeal on compassionate grounds was not granted. “She cried for two days solid,” Armstrong says.

“As far as we understand they can come at any time of the night or day. All we want to do is stay together as a family.”

Koolmatrie’s case is undoubtedly different, but has generated just as much feeling. The Home Office has refused her leave to stay as it isn’t satisfied that she and her family “intend to live permanently together”, a charge Koolmatrie and her partner angrily deny.

Koolmatrie says she has been given strength by the support they have received. “There’s this close-knit community which has stood by me and Magnie-Ché, which is part of the reason we want to stay in Shetland. Why would you want to leave when there’s community support like that around you?”

Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael, who was in Shetland last week to pursue the cases, said he was proud that, while the rest of the country “risks poisoning itself” over immigration and asylum, “a community like Shetland is still prepared to look at people living in its midst as individuals, and to say these people are not being fairly treated and we support them.

“That’s everything I could have hoped of Shetland and more,” he said.

For Hazel, Simon and Vincent, Tanya, Davie and Magnie, hope is all they have left.

Source: Sunday Herald (Scotland)

Community stands together to try and stop deportations

9 April 2004 - A Campaign has been launched to help two families faced with deportation.

Around 60 people went to a public meeting on Saturday to lend support to the campaign and suggest practical ways of helping the families.

Burmese mother Hazel Minn and her two sons, Simon (11) and Vincent (10), from Hillswick, have been told they will be forcibly repatriated to Burma if they don't leave voluntarily.

Australian Tanya Koolmatrie, who lives with her partner Davie Thomason and their eight-month-old son Magnie Ché in South Lochside, Lerwick, has also been told she must leave.

Ms Koolmatrie and Bert Armstrong, speaking for Miss Minn, told the meeting they were very grateful for all the support they had from people in the community.

Shetland Amnesty International group held a day of action a few years ago to raise awareness of the abuse of human rights in Burma.

A spokeswoman said she "understood the appalling situation facing the Minn family if they were returned to Burma (Myanmar) as we have been working with two prisoners of conscience from this sad and oppressed country".

Representatives of the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Scottish Socialist Party and Labour parties all said they would try to help.

Isles MP Alistair Carmichael was unable to be at the meeting, but a statement from him was read out by Episcopal church minister Martin Oxley.

Mr Carmichael wrote: "I have been pleased to do all that I can to support both Hazel and Tanya in their struggle to remain in Shetland and to make their homes here. Both Hazel and Tanya are part of our community and I am proud of Shetland for rallying round to help them in the way that it has. I shall continue to put their case in any way that is at my disposal.

"I have asked the new immigration minister, Des Browne, for the earliest possible meeting to discuss both these cases in the hope that we can perhaps cut through some of the red tape and bureaucratic intransigence that is the hallmark of the way in which our government deals with immigration cases.

"In last week's Shetland Times Tom Morton asked: 'What can I do to help?'. Being at this meeting today is a start. Signing the petition is something else that you can do. If you could write to me telling me how you feel about these cases I can use these letters to demonstrate to Home Office officials in London the strength of support that there is in Shetland for Hazel, Tanya and their families."

"It will do no harm for Home Office ministers to hear that people in Shetland can hear about cases such as these and feel strongly about the injustice of them."

Mr Carmichael added that the real scandal was that the cases were not that unusual, but follow "a pattern that has become familiar to me since I was elected to parliament".

He said applications seem to be refused almost routinely; only after successive appeals were the facts properly considered; the quality of decision-making was poor; conclusions were reached that ran contrary to all the evidence but reasons were never given; the rules were complex and applicants were expected to know them all.

"No allowance is made for mistakes ­ even those so obviously made in good faith."

While immigration is a devolved matter and decisions rest with the Westminster Parliament, MSP Tavish Scott asked Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell whether there was anything he could do for Ms Koolmatrie, given the Executive's Fresh Talent Initiative, which aims to attract people to Scotland.

Mr McConnell said he was sorry the decision about Ms Koolmatrie had not been favourable. He said the initiative aimed to assist those who had been granted the legal right to remain in the country and that decision remained the responsibility of the UK government.

As well as signing the petition, supporters were urged to form a telephone tree to alert as many people as possible as quickly as possible of any action by immigration officials and some supporters are considering civil disobedience.

Anyone who would like to help by writing to the Home Secretary can see a sample letter on the next page as well as details of other people to contact and ways to help the campaign.

Source: The Shetland Times

Second Shetland deportation row erupts


24 March, 2004 - A new deportation row's erupted in Shetland after it emerged a second family face being thrown out of the UK.

Campaigners are pledging to fight a Home Office decision to send the mother and child back to Australia. A Burmese family are already fighting for their right to stay in the islands.

David Thomasin and Tanya Koolmatrie have been together since they met in Austrailia five years ago. In two thousand and two they moved to Mr Thomasin's native Shetland where their eight month old son Magnus was born.

They decided they wanted to raise their son in Shetland but Tanya and her son are now facing deportation. They're furious at the Home Office's ruling that Tanya and her son must leave the country.

The family's local MP has also condemned the Home's Office's decision and says the fact the couple aren't married shouldn't affect their right to remain in Shetland.

The close-knit community has been outraged by the news that two families are facing deportation from Shetland. Hazel Minn and her sons Simon and Vincent aged ten and eleven, moved to Shetland from Burma two years ago.

They're desperate to stay but could now be forced to leave after Hazel's application to stay in the UK was rejected by the home office.

The Council Convener has leant his support to the families and says they are the kind of people Shetland needs. Both families say they will fight to stay in Shetland and plan to appeal against the Home Office ruling.

Source: Grampian TV News

Shetland won’t let families be deported

By Pete Bevington

5 April 2004 - “They shall not be moved!” was the message which came out of a weekend meeting held in support of two families which are being threatened with deportation from Shetland.

Last month a Burmese woman and her two adopted sons were told that the Home Office had refused her application to stay in the country. Hazel Minn, aged 37, and her two sons Simon (11) and Vincent (10), have been living at Stucca, in Hillswick, for the past two years and the boys go to the local school.

Tanya Koolmatrie, an Australian aboriginal woman who moved to Shetland with her partner Davie Thomason, himself a Shetland islander, who she met five years ago in Australia. The couple have an eight year old son, but the Home Office has refused to acknowledge they are in a long term relationship.

On Saturday 60 people gathered at a public meeting in Lerwick to demonstrate their support for the two families, pledging to write letters to the Home Office asking them to change their minds about these two cases.

At the meeting it was revealed that a Chinese man who had been living in Shetland since January had been suddenly deported by the immigration service last Thursday. Local people living in Burra, where Jack Chan was staying, said that he had been acting as an interpreter for Chinese and Korean workers at a shellfish factory.

They said that Mr Chan had joined a meeting between immigration officials and one of the workers to help translate for him, when he had had suddenly been arrested himself and taken to Lerwick Police Station. On Friday Mr Chan is believed to have been taken out of Shetland.

Hazel Minn and her family are frightened that a similar fate awaits them, with potential dire consequences should be sent back to Burma where the military authorities do not look kindly upon criticism of their regime.

Bert Armstrong, Hazel’s English-born uncle by marriage, said: “She will be arrested as soon as she steps off that plane and she will be thrown in prison and left to rot.”

Local people have rallied around both families writing letters and sending out petitions in support of them staying in Shetland.

Local MP Alistair Carmichael has called for a personal meeting with Britain’s new immigration minister to explain to him the strength of local feeling about these cases.

Mr Carmichael said: “Both Hazel and Tanya are part of our community and I am proud of Shetland for rallying round to help them in the way that it has.

“I have asked the new immigration minister, Des Browne, for the earliest possible meeting to discuss both these cases in the hope that we can perhaps cut through some of the red tape and bureaucratic intransigence that is the hallmark of the way in which our government deals with immigration cases.”

He added that the real scandal of the Shetland situation was that it was not unusual, saying the Home Office routinely refused applications, only considered cases properly after successive appeals, made poor decisions, never explained their decisions even when they ran contrary to the evidence and never allowed for mistakes even though the rules were complex.

But yesterday the Shetland people said they would not stand by and allow the government to kick out the families, and gathered outside Ms Koolmatrie and Mr Thomason’s Lerwick house to show the resistance immigration officers would face if they tried to arrest them.

Mr Thomason said: “We have been trying to stay in Shetland ever since we first found out that we were having a little boy. The way I was brought up in Shetland was that we all help each other and I really hope that Shetland sets an example to other places and shows that we don’t push people away just because they come from somewhere else.”

Representatives from local branches of Amnesty International, the different political parties and church groups have joined forces with local people to put pressure on the government to change its mind.

Source: Shetland News

Shetland pleas to be reheard

Kirsty Scott

29 April 2004 - Two women who face being deported from the Shetland islands are to have their cases reviewed by the Home Office. Hazel Minn, 37, originally from Burma, and Tanya Koolmatrie, an Aborigine, have been fighting to stay on the islands with the support of the local community. The women, both mothers, had been told by immigration authorities they must leave.

But Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, confirmed yesterday that the Home Office had agreed to look again at their cases.

The plight of the women, highlighted in the Guardian last week, has galvanised the local community. Almost 4,000 Shetland residents have signed a petition objecting to the women's deportation back to Burma and Australia.

Schoolfriends of Ms Minn's two adopted sons, Simon, 11, and Vincent, 10, also wrote to Mr Blunkett pleading with him to allow the boys to remain.

Further information: human rights issues page - includes news index and external links