‘Fight for Yashika’ protest opposes student’s deportation

Protesters gathered in central London today in support of a student facing deportation to Mauritius without her family on Mother’s Day.

Yashika Bageerathi, 19, was given plane tickets by the Home Office and told to leave or “removal may be enforced”.

A petition in support of 19-year-old has received over 145,000 signatures as the student faces forced removal from the UK if she does not leave the UK tomorrow.

Asylum claim

The teenager travelled to the UK with her mother, sister and brother in 2011 to escape a relative who was physically abusive, she claimed asylum in the summer of 2013, although all four family members now face deportation.

Ms Bageerathi is currently in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre where she has been held since 19 March.

Campaigners have been appealing to Air Mauritius to refuse to deport the student, the airline said it would not comment on individual passengers and the Home Office has repeatedly refused to discuss the case.

It seemed that she had been given a last minute reprieve on Tuesday, when British Airways appeared to refuse to allow her to board a flight from Gatwick Airport, but the airline would not comment on the matter.

We’re covering the #FightforYashika protest outside parliament today – Yashika’s mother is visiting her for the last time this afternoon

— Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) March 29, 2014

Deportation threat

The campaign was dealt a blow on Tuesday evening when her mother, brother and sister were told they also faced the threat of deportation after receiving a letter from the Home Office telling the mother she had no grounds for appeal.

Students are calling on Immigration Minister James Brokenshire and Theresa May to stop the deportation and allow the student to finish her A-levels.

The campaign has been receiving support on Twitter under the hashtag #FightForYashika.

Watch our report from earlier this week on the case of Yashika Bageerathi (below).