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Plymouth school students detained after escaping racist harassment

By Danny Reilly

24 February 2005, 3:00pm

Two asylum-seeking students who were forced to leave their school because of harassment are now facing deportation.

Last September, a police investigation was launched at Parkside Community College in Plymouth, after a group of forty White students chanted 'P*kis Out' en masse in the school playground. The level of racism in the school had been building up for several months, with student asylum seekers suffering persistent racist attacks. A number of asylum-seeking students, including sisters Sabrin and Hanna Thaha, were forced to leave the school.

Luckily the two have since been doing well at a new school where the head has described them as excellent students. But this morning, at 7.30am, they were picked up in their home, along with their mother Ruir, by immigration officers and have been taken to Tinsley House detention centre, near Gatwick Airport. Supporters are now battling to prevent the family's deportation to Germany which is due to take place tomorrow. The family has lived in Plymouth for three years.

The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.

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