Fury as Precious Mhango and mother lose court extradition fight

Published on Thursday 10 June 2010 21:58

A SCOTTISH schoolgirl and her mother at the centre of a long-running asylum case face deportation after a High Court judge upheld a Home Office decision to have them removed.

• Precious Mhango and her mother Florence. They have fitted in and are well liked in Glasgow. Picture: Robert Perry

Tionge Mhango, ten, known to her friends and family as Precious, and her mother Florence, 32, have been involved in a high-profile legal battle to avoid removal to Malawi.

But campaigners yesterday pledged to continue fighting and said an appeal against the judge's decision was being prepared.

The pair, who live in Glasgow, were held in Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire last year before moving to another one in Yarl's Wood, Berkshire, in anticipation of their deportation, and were granted a last-minute reprieve.

They were released from the detention centre shortly before Christmas after a high-profile campaign by Scottish politicians and local people in Glasgow's Cranhill area, where they now live.

Supporters of the pair had secured and funded a judicial review of the Home Office's decision in the hope it would be forced to reconsider.

But yesterday in London Deputy High Court judge Christopher Symons QC, who carried out the review, concluded that the Home Office had been entitled in wanting to deport Precious and her mother.

Judge Symons said that it would not be disproportionate or unduly harsh to send Precious back to Malawi, even though it was a country she did not know.

Giving his judgment, he said: "Tionge has clearly done very well in this country, and both she and her mother are well liked and have fitted into their new community."

The judge said he accepted that Precious' removal would cause some disruption and it would take her some time to adjust.

"But she has shown herself to be adaptable and I have little doubt that she will make as much a success of her life there as she has here."

He added that the government's decision to remove her was "a legitimate, necessary and proportionate response" to the need to maintain immigration controls.

Lawyers for the family had argued that it would be "unduly harsh" to remove the child from her settled environment and from a country "she has been part of for all the parts of her life she can remember".

Anne McLaughlin, the SNP MSP for Glasgow, who has campaigned for the pair, said they hoped to enter their grounds for appeal next week.

"This is obviously not the result we wanted for Florence and Precious," she said.

"However, we believe there are grounds for an appeal and the legal team will tonight be studying the full judgment to work up those grounds."

She said that she would also be lobbying the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to examine their case.

Last night, Chris Mercer, Precious's godmother, said: "Florence is in a state of shock, horror and disgust. I can't understand how the powers-that-be cannot see the injustice and human rights issues here.

"What nobody seems to be taking on board here is the psychological damage being done to a mother and daughter."

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "When a family is found by the independent courts not to have a right to remain in the UK, they are expected to leave voluntarily."

Asylum seekers' long fight to stay on Scots soil

PRECIOUS and her mother Florence entered the UK in May 2003 as dependants of Mrs Mhango's husband, who was in the country on a student visa.

They had been given leave to remain until 31 October, 2007, the same visa expiry date as the husband.

However, Mrs Mhango separated from him in July 2006, and following their separation the mother and daughter lived in their own accommodation and Precious attended Eardley primary school, Streatham, south-west London.

They moved to Glasgow in early 2007, and Precious started attending Dalmarnock primary school, later moving to St Maria Goretti primary school.

But after October 2007 Mrs Mhango, on account of her separation from Precious's father, had no right to remain as his dependent.

Unsuccessful asylum applications were later launched, and then further pleas backed by fresh evidence were made to the Home Secretary in November 2009 on Precious's behalf.

Family solicitors wrote asking the then Home Secretary to grant her discretionary leave to stay in the UK, saying she would encounter "extreme difficulties" if forcibly removed to Malawi.

The Home Office rejected the plea, saying her and her mother's ties to the UK "are not sufficiently compelling to justify allowing them to remain in the UK".