Sheffielders she has never met fight to save Pegah from deportation

Pegah Emambakhsh, aged 40, who had been living in a rented house on City Road, is currently imprisoned in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre in Bedford awaiting her fate.

She was granted an 11th hour reprieve as she was due to be deported.

In an email to her supporters, Pegah, who was arrested in Sheffield last month, said: “As you well know I am having a difficult time right now, with no assurances for the future and with a lot of pain in my soul.”

The divorcee, the mother of two sons who are still in Iran, said: “I cannot deny that I am still very frightened, and the separation from my beloved children hurts so much that at times it seems unbearable.

“You don’t know how much of a comfort it is to me to know that you are out there.

“You don’t even know me, yet you are working for my cause, sticking your necks out and fighting for me, you write to me and send me wonderful flowers.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this. Even many of the Iranians I was in contact with here in the UK abandoned me when they found out the reason I had applied for asylum.

“I haven’t heard from them since, they don’t want anything to do with me.

“I never imagined there were groups like you around.

“I hope the future offers me the opportunity to meet each and every person who has shown me so much friendship.

“I am feeling much calmer, I am happy to have all this protection, all this love that instils in me new energy and a desire to go on living.”

An organisation called the EveryOne Group is campaigning for Pegah to be allowed to stay in Britain.

Supporters from Sheffield ASSIST - the Asylum Seeker Support Initiative - are also waiting to hear if they may take her case back to the Court of Appeal after it was deferred last month.