South Wales Echo
April 7, 2004, Wednesday
REPRIEVE FOR MUM
by BY ANNA HAMMOND
A couple refused asylum in this country have been given a last-minute
reprieve.
Aygun and Rauf Musayeva moved to Cardiff from Azerbaijan 15 months
ago after suffering physical violence and torment.
The couple claim mother of two Aygun, 29, was persecuted by locals
and the police because of her mixed ethnic origin.
But both were refused asylum and Mrs Musayeva, whose mother was
Armenian, was told she must return to Azerbaijan THIS week after an
appeal hearing ruled she had been ill-treated but not severely enough
to gain asylum.
Since then neighbours have rallied together hoping that the
authorities will let them and their sons – Mirjamil, six, and Farid,
four, stay.
The couple’s solicitor Michael Barnett, an asylum case worker with
Cardiff-based company Rees Wood Terry, said he had discussed the case
with the Immigration Service and the couple had been given more time.
He said that Mrs Musayeva had been granted permission to stay in the
country until her husband’s appeal.
He added: ‘The file has been sent to the appeal office but we have no
idea when the hearing will be.’
Rauf, 35, of Moorland Road, Splott, said: ‘I am very pleased that my
wife and children can stay with me until a decision is made on me.’
Neighbour Debbie Robinson, 39, said the family still had the support
of many people in the street.
‘It is good that they are not going, this is what we have been
working on,’ she said. ‘The next stage is making their stay permanent
because they have so much to offer the community.’