Parade princess Misheel is all smiles again

By Deborah James

25 June 2004, Daily Post, Liverpool
 
Beaming with pride as he hugs his daughter to celebrate her ninth birthday, asylum seeker Jugder Narantsogt is the epitome of a doting father.

It is difficult for an outside observer to fathom the depth of trauma the 38-year-old civil engineer and his family suffered before and since fleeing Mongolia, four years ago.

Mr Narantsogt, who claims he was a prominent politician with the opposition Mongolian Democratic Union from 1991 to 1993, last night wept as he spoke of fears that he will be assassinated if he returns home.

The father-of-two, (pictured with Misheel), believes evidence of corruption he gathered about former Communist politicians and officials could make him a target for an underground attack.

He told the Daily Post: "I am afraid there are people there who want to get revenge against me.

"Many times they said danger will happen to you and your family, and maybe you will be killed if you don't stop your activities."

Mr Narantsogt, his wife Shinee, 37, son Evsaana, 17, and daughter Misheel, 9, spent two weeks behind bars at the Dungavel deportation centre in Scotland, after a dawn raid at their Liverpool home on June 3.

The family, who have lived in the city for nearly two years, were granted a last minute reprieve from deportation after the Daily Post and Liverpool MPs intervened last month.

It meant Misheel, a pupil at St John's Primary School in Bootle, saw her dream to be crowned princess in the Liverpool Lord Mayor's Parade come true last Saturday.

But this is not yet a fairytale ending for the family, who are awaiting a date for their asylum case to be heard, after two previous appeals failed in 2002 and 2003.

Last night he claimed:

• He was repeatedly threatened by Communist agents after founding a provincial branch of the opposition Democratic Union party in his home region of Sukhebaatar, in south eastern Mongolia, in 1990.
• He was illegally arrested, once in 1990 and twice in 2000 - seven years after giving up his position as deputy chairman of the Communist-controlled Sukhebaatar provincial government in 1993.
• He was imprisoned in a 4x4 metre room with two other men, deprived of food and light, and questioned for 10 days in 2000.
• Although never tortured, he witnessed fellow cellmates being beaten several times.
• The family's apartment in the south eastern town of Baruunurt was ransacked repeatedly during the next two months, while Mr Narantsogt lived in hiding in nearby countryside.

Last night Mrs Narantsogt, who was an English teacher in Mongolia, spoke of her terror after the Communists were voted back into power in 2000, after four years in opposition.

She said: "I thought danger was coming again to my family after my husband was arrested. I was very frightened.

"We decided if the Communists got back in power we would have to leave the country, so I got in touch with some friends and we got a passport and a tourist visa for my husband. I don't know if it was legal, I was so scared we just wanted to get him safe."

After two months in hiding, Mr Narantsogt crept back to the family home where they spent a distraught time preparing for him to flee the country, by train to Beijing then a flight to Heathrow.

He said: "I didn't know what would happen to me in England, I didn't have a plan, I was running for my life.

As a teenager, Mr Narantsogt was a keen member of the Mongolian young Communist party, having been fed what he describes as "crazy propaganda" about the west.

But he switched allegiance soon after the Mongolian Democratic revolution in 1989.

He says he was too afraid to seek advice on arrival in England.

It was not until a year after his wife arrived with the children on a student visa six months later, that the Narantsogts eventually made a formal asylum application and were sent to Liverpool in spring 2002.

When Home Office officials came to arrest the family on June 3, they had already had two asylum appeals rejected.

In the meantime, they have done their best to make a home in their sparsely decorated three bedroomed terracein Kirkdale.

But their Home Office assistance of £130 a week is a far cry from the comparative luxury the family enjoyed in Mongolia, where Mr Narantsogt earned around 10 times the average wage of $50 USD a month.

He said: "I am very frustrated at not being able to work here.

"We are all going to college to study English and IT, and Misheel is in school - she even thinks in English now.

"If we get asylum then I want to set up my own business here."

Mr Narantsogt wept as he contemplated the thought of never again seeing his mother, who is 70 and in ill health, but said adamantly: "I cannot go back."

Countdown to a life offering new hope

• 2000 - Communists win back overall power of the Mongolian government, Mr Narantsogt is arrested twice in the next six months. On his release Mr Narantsogt goes into hiding and his family's home is searched several times and his wife questioned about his political activities.
• Nov 2000 - Mr Narantsogt flees Mongolia on a tourist visa, and sets up home in London.
• July 2001 - Mrs Narantsogt and their two children arrive in England to join him, having sold all the family's possessions.
• April 2002 - The Narantsogts make their first asylum claim, and are granted a house in Liverpool.
• June 3, 2004 - Home Office officials and police raid the Narantsogt's home in Kirkdale. Liverpool MP Louise Ellman secures a last minute deferral of their deportation 30 minutes before they are due to step on a plane.
• June 6, 2004 - The family are transferred to Dungavel deportation centre in Lanarkshire.
• June 17, 2004 - The family is granted a last minute reprieve and return to Liverpool.

Source: http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk