UK Falun Gong Practitioner Threatened with Immediate Deportation back to China (Photos)

LONDON (FDI) - A Falun Gong practitioner in UK is currently being held at a deportation center in Manchester Airport, waiting to be deported back to China. As a Falun Gong practitioner, she could face incarceration, torture, or even murder should she be really sent back to her home country.

Lili Lin, 28, applied for asylum in Manchester in October 2001 on grounds of being a practitioner of Falun Gong. In April 2002, Lili Lin was married to Jinfei Zhang, a PhD student at Liverpool University, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner. She moved from Manchester to Liverpool to live with her husband, and informed the Home Office of her change of address. Since then she has reported to the Home Office in Liverpool regularly.

However, the Home Office refused her asylum application and sent the refusal letter to her old address; therefore she was not aware of the refusal letter at all until it was too late. Failing to appeal against the Home Office decision in time, she was listed for deportation. At 3pm, February 26, 2003, as usual, Lili went to report to the Home Office in Liverpool. Out of the blue, an immigration officer announced that she was to be deported immediately.

She asked to see her husband, but was refused. Four tall and strong policemen came up and pressed her down to the floor, and dragged her into a room, where she was locked until 8:30pm. She was not given any food or water when she was locked up. They then sent her to a deportation center in Manchester, where she was still not provided with food or water, and was not allowed to contact her husband. It was not until 1:20am, February 27th that she was able to get in touch with her husband with the help of a kind-hearted staff member. By that time, her husband had become extremely worried about her whereabouts, as she had failed to come home.

Lili would be put in a dangerous situation if she were deported back to China. Lili has been an active Falun Gong practitioner in UK, and voluntarily runs a free Falun Gong exercise-teaching class in Liverpool together with her husband. Her husband's name appears in Falun Gong's leaflets and website, which are widely and openly distributed. She frequently went to the Chinese consulate in Manchester and Chinese Embassy in London to appeal.

Undoubtedly the Chinese Government knows of this family's involvement with Falun Gong. The British Government and public must not fail in their responsibility to protect this family.

Further Contact: Mr. Jinfei Zhang (husband of Lili Lin): 07789 914 701 Ms. Zhengfang Mo: 07818 037 273

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