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Mum fears for kids after being told to leave UK
A REFUGEE family facing deportation are fighting to stay in their South Tyneside home.
Despite living in Boldon Colliery for the last five years, asylum seeker Rola Saad and her three young children have been told by the Home Office they must return to the Lebanon.
Ms Saad's nine-year-old daughter was so distraught by the news that she attempted suicide, by pouring bleach over herself, rather than return to her war-torn homeland.
The family are now refusing to leave the UK without a fight and already 200 people have signed a petition opposing their deportation.
Ms Saad said the trauma of being told she would have to leave the village which has become their home pushed her eldest daughter Maryam Youssef Hneino, to the brink of suicide.
She fears for her family's lives after immigration officials told them they must return to their homeland.
The 30-year-old came to Britain five years ago, a year after her husband arrived in the country seeking political asylum.
The couple have separated, and Ms Saad has since discovered she has no documentation of her own to support her claim to stay here, and she has no idea where her husband is now.
Her days in South Tyneside are numbered as she faces deportation to Lebanon. Ms Saad, who has settled in Boldon Colliery, told the Gazette it was her that alerted the Home Office to her situation.
She said: "I wanted to enrol at college, and was told I would need certain papers, including my immigration documents.
"When I realised they were missing, I got in touch with immigration officials, who told me I no longer had the right to asylum in this country.
"I was never aware I wasn't allowed to stay here, because everything was dealt with by my husband."
Ms Saad is seeking to appeal against the decision to deport her, and she has the support of scores of her new friends and neighbours.
Already, she has a petition signed by more than 200 supporters of her bid to stay in the UK.
Maryam, her brother Sami, seven, and their sister Hoda, five, all attend Boldon C of E Primary School in West Boldon.
Ms Saad said: "To take them out of the school would be awful.
"The younger two were babies when they arrived in England and can't speak any Arabic.
"Maryam needs to see an ear specialist regularly because she has hearing problems, and now she also sees a psychiatrist because she is so traumatised about going back."
In October, Ms Saad caught her eldest daughter pouring bleach over herself in a suicide attempt.
"She was standing there in the kitchen soaking wet with the bleach she had just poured over herself because she wanted to die," she said.
"I took her to the hospital right away. I was petrified she had swallowed some. It turned out she hadn't, but she did tell me she was only moments away from drinking it."
The youngster has told her psychiatrist she believes that if she kills herself it might help her family in their fight to avoid deportation.
Her heartbroken mum says she is now at a loss about what to do.
She said: "Even if we do return to Lebanon, I don't know where we would live."I have official documentation saying my house was bombed last year."
Kath Sainsbury, project manager for Justice First, a group which fights for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, said: "It doesn't serve any interests to uproot a family and children who have grown up here."
As part of her campaign to stay in the country, Ms Saad has also turned to Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn for help.
After meeting the MP, she is hopeful he will back her case.
Mr Hepburn said: "Rola is a very genuine person who has been caught up in the system.
"I will be supporting her case 100 per cent, and will be doing everything I can to help."
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
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Weather for South Shields
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
