Asylum: Please help us to stay

At the age of four, Brian Comacho witnessed the murder of his grandparents and a brutal attack on his mother by rebel Bolivian soldiers, because the family belonged to the "wrong" political party. Their lives in danger, Brian's parents gathered their three children and fled to the UK. They settled in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where they've been living for the past four years.

The three Comacho children, Brian, eight, Brigith, six, and Nicol, five, are now established at St John's Roman Catholic Primary School. Being the eldest, Brian was the most traumatised by the attacks he witnessed. However, he has responded well to play therapy and counselling since arriving in the UK and is now described by headteacher Jed Morgan as a happy child, like his two younger sisters.

In danger of deportation

The Comacho family believes their lives will be in danger if they're made to return to Bolivia - something Mrs Comacho, a nurse, has vowed they'll never do. However, the Comachos, along with at least seven other families from Bolivia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose children attend St John's, are now at risk of deportation because they have been refused final leave to remain in the UK.

This threat of deportation is very real. The Mariano family, who had lived in Rochdale for three years and whose youngest child, Angelica, attended St John's, was forcibly removed by police and immigration officials and sent back to Angola on 5 May. By many accounts the removal was heavy-handed.

For Kath Sainsbury, a regional co-ordinator for the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC): "The method of removal is often brutal - these people are targeted in dawn raids and are not allowed to get dressed or gather documents. Their dignity is stripped away and they're sometimes even denied the opportunity to use the toilet."

According to Morgan, the Mariano family has now split, with the father leaving his wife and children in order to flee for his life. Against this backdrop, St John's is campaigning to prevent the deportation of its at-risk pupils and their families. "This is not political, it is just about the children," states Morgan. "We think their human rights are being contravened. The law says people have no rights if they're illegal immigrants, and that they have no human rights, but to forcibly drag someone from their home is taking it too far."

St John's campaign began with the local MP, Lorna Fitzsimmons, who made representations to the Home Office regarding the school's cases. When no progress was made, the campaigners were advised to get as much publicity as possible. Both local and national press took up the story, and the coverage generated much support from other parents, schools and local people. This has resulted in St John's holding a rally along the streets of Rochdale and collecting more than 2,000 signatures on a petition that Morgan delivered to the Home Office on 6 June.

The school hopes to win an amnesty for children in UK schools who've been living in this country for two years or more. "Our interest is in safeguarding the children," says Morgan. "Of course there have to be immigration controls, but there needs to be a reasonable turnaround time.

"The UN web site states that two years is a reasonable amount of time to go through the asylum process and the only way the Government can argue against this is to say that these children don't have rights, which is absurd," he adds.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Britain has signed up to, states it is never in the best interests of children to remove them from their school and community. Article 3 of the Convention says that in actions concerning children, "the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration". However, the Government has opted out of the sections of the Convention regarding nationality, immigration and asylum, which campaigners claim allows the interests of the child to be ignored.

St John's is not alone in its campaigning stance. The past few months have seen a groundswell of protests against deportations from schools up and down the UK. Following a campaign by pupils at Drumchapel High in Glasgow, a family of Kosovan Roma asylum seekers was freed from detention in March. Sadush Murselaj, his wife, Tade, both 44, and their children Agnesa, 15, Gentian, 12, and nine-year-old Leonard were released from Yarl's Wood detention centre near Bedford after hundreds of pupils signed a petition opposing their detention.

Children supporting their peers

In another case, the entire sixth form at Canterbury High School mobilised to get fellow student Amin Buratee released from Dover Removal Centre. The campaign led to Amin, 18, who lost his family in Afghanistan, being allowed to return to school. He now has permission to stay until he finishes his exams this month and campaigners believe good results may lead to a further reprieve.

And at Mayfield School, in Portsmouth, students led a campaign in support of a Syrian-Kurdish Year 10 pupil Lorin Sulaiman, 15, her mother Amina Ibrahim, 51, and sister Eva, 16, who were eventually granted permission in April to stay in Britain for two years. According to Mayfield's headteacher Derek Trimmer: "We would do it again if we had to. We stuck to the Government's Every Child Matters mandate and used the analogy that if this child were in danger in any other way, we would do everything to provide a safe environment."

He also points out that the reprieve is not just good news for Lorin but for the rest of the pupils too. "If she had been plucked away from her friends, the effect on them doesn't bear thinking about," adds Trimmer. Indeed, the effect on the children left behind is described by Morgan at St John's as "worse than bereavement, particularly for the ones who are close friends with the children that are deported".

Sue Quantrill, mother of Jak, 14, experienced this devastation after her son's best friend Johann Reyes-Prado was deported with his family in March 2004, despite a campaign by the boy's school, St Wilfrid's Secondary in South Shields, Tyneside. "Jak has been in contact with Johann online, but now we haven't heard from them in six weeks and he is at his wit's end," reveals Quantrill.

The Reyes-Prado family, Jhon, Mary and their children John-Paul, Andres and Johann, had lived in South Shields for more than three years. They fled Colombia after Jhon's life was threatened by a paramilitary group that had already killed his brother because of his political beliefs. The Home Office refused asylum, saying it would be safe to return to a different part of Colombia.

Three weeks after the family returned to Colombia, Jhon was shot at and the family was separated, but it is now believed they're back together and have fled to Venezuela. "We know that they're determined to get back to the UK, but we are worried about what will happen to them if they try," says Quantrill.

Sainsbury suggests that families with children are more at risk of deportation because they're more visible since they have to register at school and for medical needs, whereas it's far easier for single people to remain "unseen" by officials.

This is also an issue that concerns the Institute of Race Relations. "There seems to be a disproportionate number of families being deported," says a spokesman. "Are they easier targets?" he asks.

Uniting to change policy

The Schools Against Deportations campaign - a nationwide network of campaigning teachers and trade unionists supported by the NCADC, the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, and several NUT branches - is lobbying to end what appears to be a deportation lottery and to change policy at a national level. Its goal is for children of asylum seekers to stay in the UK up to the age of 18, along with their families, regardless of how long they've been here.

It is calling for everyone in education concerned about the damaging impact that the threat of or actual deportation can have on children and young people to sign its petition (at www.schools againstdeportations.org) with around 500 people having signed so far. The organisation is also trying to get the petition endorsed by the main trade unions and is planning an event in September to generate further support.

Arun Kundnani, campaign co-ordinator, says: "We believe that it's never in the best interests of children or young people to remove them from their school and community against their will. That hundreds of young people suffer this fate every year in Britain is a scandal. The aim of Schools Against Deportations is to send a message from the education sector that the best interests of the child should be the primary consideration when deciding whether to deport someone attending a school or college in Britain."

For the Comacho family, and others like them, a change in policy cannot come soon enough. "The situation is not looking hopeful but if we raise public awareness then there may be a chance for these children, so we have to try," says Morgan. "It really is a David and Goliath job."

CHILDREN'S VOICES

Angelica Mariano was recently sent back to Angola. Her Year 3 classmates at St John's Roman Catholic Primary School describe how they felt

"Everyone was shocked, one day she was here like normal, and the next day she was gone" - Ryan

"She was my best friend, she was nice. She will miss her friends. She was very kind and she talked to everyone" - Catarina

"She was everybody's friend and she was talented" - Zaynah

"She was funny, and you had to tell her to turn the volume control down" - Hellen

"She took care of people when they were hurt. She was all the girls' best friend. We will miss her when we make our first Holy Communion" - Francis

"She was good at thinking and explaining things in English and Portuguese" - Marlene.