Supporters toast asylum ruling

Success: asylum-seeker Taha Ghasemi, pictured with Unitarian Chapel minister Bob Pounder, will be able to stay in the country for three years

Tortured Iranian can stay in UK
CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after an Oldham asylum-seeker was granted permission to stay in the UK.

Supporters at the Oldham Unitarian Chapel rallied around Taha Ghasemi a year ago when they launched a campaign to stop him being deported to his home country of Iran.

He learned of the campaign’s success in a letter from the UK Border Agency.

He will be able to stay in the country for three years and have the right to work.

The life-changing letter prompted jubilation among the supporters of Taha, who has been destitute in this country for six years, the majority of which he has spent in Oldham.

A member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, he was severely beaten, tortured and imprisoned after supporting the Kurdish rights campaign in Iran.

It was feared being deported would lead to further torture or death.

The fast-moving campaign quickly gathered support and accrued more than 2,000 signatures on a petition by December last year.

Reacting the news Taha said simply: “Thank you so much, with all my heart — thank you.”


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