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Asylum seekers hospital drama
A PREGNANT Czech woman and her husband are in separate hospitals after she collapsed and he slashed his wrist when he was taken from their Sheffield home to be deported.
Melanie Lagronova collapsed suffering from stress and dehydration and was taken to the Royal Hallamshire after seeing her husband, Frantisek Lagron, being removed from their home in Infirmary Road, Kelvin, in front of her three children.
Now her 48-year-old husband has been admitted to Wythenshawe hospital, Manchester, after slitting his left wrist with a piece of broken toilet bowl he smashed with a fire extinguisher at the city's airport detention centre.
He was due to be deported when police said he used a fire extinguisher to smash the bowl and beat his head before being restrained by officers.
Mr Lagron is due to return to hospital for plastic surgery for his injuries before being sent home.
Campaigners and supporters today blasted the Home Office decision to deport Mr Lagron, just weeks before he could be allowed to legally stay and work here when the Czech Republic joins the European Union with nine other states on May 1.
But the Home Office said today if the family wants to work here, they must go to Prague and return to Britain after May 1.
The couple, their 18-year-old daughter Melanie, and twin children Francois and Samantha, aged 10, are from the Czech Republic's Roma gypsy community.
They have had their claims for asylum rejected, although documents given to the Home Office state the family found it impossible to live in Prague because they were persecuted for their Romany origin.
Incidents of abuse listed include:
n schools refusing to accept the children because they were 'foreign'
n bullets posted to their home
n attacks by skinheads
n dead rats hung outside their front door.
Daughter Melanie has attracted the interest of modelling agencies in Sheffield and Leeds and says she wants to stay here with her family and work legally after May 1.
She plans to marry Richard Kirk, aged 37, of Langsett Road, Upperthorpe, who she has been in a relationship with for two years.
The family also claims documents informing them of their asylum appeal, which they lost, were sent to the wrong address in Firth Point Road, making it impossible to contest the hearing in person.
Mr Kirk said: "We hear all this talk about not wanting immigrants here who will claim benefits, but these people are willing to work.
"Both her parents are in a really bad way, and I'm getting to the stage now when I'm going to do something illegal to keep her here."
Reports from the Immigration Advisory Service state Roma people are discriminated against across Europe.
Chief executive of the Northern Refugee Centre, Jim Steinke, said: "It is a crazy situation where people are deported this close to May 1, when they could very well be allowed to stay here after that.
"We are seeing it happen with other refugees.
"When people are wanting to work here after May 1, we should be encouraging them to do so."
A Home Office spokes-man said: "We must send out a firm message that until accession, nationals of these 10 countries will be treated in accordance with existing immigration rules.
"To do otherwise would undermine effective immigration control."
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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