An
engineering student is set to be deported with just three months left of her
degree. Shiromini Satkunarajah, a student at Bangor University, was arrested on
Tuesday and taken to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre. The Home Office have since
informed Ms Satkunarajah she will be sent back to her birthplace, Sri Lanka, on
28 February. Ms Satkunarajah has lived in the UK since she was 12 years old,
when her parents fled the Sri Lankan Civil War. She was originally a dependant
on her father’s student visa, but was given leave to complete her secondary
education in the UK when he died in 2011. She was informed by the Home Office
this week that her application for a full student visa had been denied.
At
the time of writing, a Change.org petition calling on Home Secretary Amber
Rudd to grant Shiromini leave to remain had gathered 16,000 signatures. The
campaign group 'Unis Resist Border Control' told The Independent Ms
Shivani Jegarajah from Justitia Chambers would be lodging a judicial
review to stop Tuesday's impending removal from taking place.
Sanaz Raji from Unis Resist Border
Controls said: "Although Shiromini is an exceptional
student with a bright future ahead, we advocate for all students, regardless of
their academic aptitude. No one should be denied the right to an
education."
We have seen far too many international students
woefully mistreated both by universities who use us as ‘cash cows’ to
financially prop up their institutions, while the Home Office attacks us in
order to justify their racist and xenophobic migration policies.”
The Home Office said it would not comment on the
details of an individual case.
credit: business insider
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