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Teenage orphan 'fears for her life' if deported from UK to Ukraine

A Ukrainian teenager whose mother was murdered is due to find out if she will be deported from Br...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.10 27 Aug 2016


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Teenage orphan 'fears...

Teenage orphan 'fears for her life' if deported from UK to Ukraine

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.10 27 Aug 2016


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A Ukrainian teenager whose mother was murdered is due to find out if she will be deported from Britain back to Ukraine.

Iryna Mynich, 15, has been fighting to be allowed to stay in the UK since her mother's death four years ago.

She is currently living in Cornwall with couple Terry and Heather Voysey, who she was staying with when she heard her mother had been shot in Ukraine in 2012.

So far her appeals to be granted "leave to remain" in the UK have been unsuccessful, with officials saying she should return to live with her grandmother.

A final hearing will take place in Wales on Tuesday, but Iryna says she fears for her safety if she is sent back.

"I've heard a lot of what is happening there while I have been here and it's scary - murders, burglars, everything. It is scary, it's no life," she told Sky News. 

The youngster wrote to Theresa May while she was Home Secretary begging to be allowed to stay.

Her Cornish guardians have also written to the Home Office arguing that the gran she is meant to move back in with in

Ukraine is suffering from dementia and unable to care for her.

Terry Voysey says that it hasn't cost the UK anything for Iryna to stay as they have paid for her schooling and she also pays to use the NHS.

Legally, Iryna is viewed as a migrant rather than a refugee or asylum seeker and Mr Voysey believes she is being used as a scapegoat because the Government is under pressure to cut immigration levels.

He said: "I'm embarrassed that a country that has set itself up as 'Great' Britain can focus all of its efforts on a child in a desperate situation where there is nothing to be gained from it other than destroying a family."

Figures released this week showed that net migration stayed at a near-record level of 327,000, more than three times the Government's target.

A spokesperson for the UK's Home Office said: "It would be inappropriate to comment while this case is ongoing."

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