Student's Family Lose Deportation Battle

A mother who has campaigned to stop the removal of her 19-year-old daughter from the country has been told she too has to leave Britain.

Student Yashika Bageerathi was due to be flown back to Maritius on Tuesday afternoon without her mother, sister and brother.

She was given a last-minute reprieve after a high-profile campaign from London school friends and teachers which apparently led British Airways to not accept her on a flight from Gatwick Airport.

However, celebrations were cancelled on Tuesday night as Yashika's mother's solicitors received a letter from the Home Office stating that her application for asylum had also been rejected and she would have to leave the country with her two other children.

Yashika's school principal, Lynne Dawes, has been a figurehead in the campaign since her pupil was taken into an immigration detention centre. She was with Mrs Bageerathi when she received the letter.

"I thought she was going to faint," she said. "We've been confused about why they made a U-turn on their decision to remove Yashika and now this. We will be appealing."

Yashika came to the UK from Mauritius in 2011 on a tourist visa to escape domestic violence.

Since applying for asylum, her application has been treated separately from her mother, brother and sister as she is considered an adult.

On Sunday, a protest march to the Home Office was staged by dozens of school friends, teachers and neighbours.

An online petition by the students calling on Immigration Minister James Brokenshire and Home Secretary Theresa May to stop the deportation and allow the student to complete her A-levels collected nearly 23,000 signatures.

Model Cara Delevingne also made a plea on Twitter for Mrs May not to send the aspiring maths teacher back.

On Monday, barristers took an injunction to the High Court asking for her to be allowed to at least finish her A-Levels and be with her family, but the case was rejected.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need it and we consider every application on its individual merits.

"We do not routinely comment on individual cases."