Asylum-seeker's deportation defiance

A Chinese human rights campaigner detained with her son at an immigration centre in Britain has vowed to kill herself rather than be forced to return to China.

Qin Wang, 26, and her two-year-old son Jian Qi Lin, are being held at Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire after Ms Wang lost her asylum claim to live in this country.

Her lawyers managed to halt an attempt to remove both of them earlier this month when a court ruled that her appeal should be heard later this year.

Family friends who have visited her in detention said Qin Wang, who lived in Sandyhills, Glasgow, said she had talked of killing herself rather than returning to China, where she says she was beaten and indecently assaulted by police after being arrested by the Chinese authorities over her involvement in human rights protests.

Qin Wang, who came to Britain in 2003, says she suffered torture and was imprisoned after campaigning for workers sacked without redundancy payments when an electronics factory in the Fujian district closed.

She claims she was tortured while held in a political prison until her family managed to successfully petition for her to be taken to hospital from where Ms Wang managed to escape and come to the UK.

She is one of dozens of Chinese people facing deportation to China. Ms Wang's lawyer, Stephen Kong of Birmingham law firm Harvey Son & Filby, said he had four other Chinese immigration cases where the Home Office had ruled that it was safe to return them to China.

Other immigration firms report similar numbers.

Mr Kong said he was now trying to secure Mr Wang and her son's release from Yarl's Wood which he says is not suitable for families.

"The court has now given permission for a full hearing so I can see no reason why she is still in detention," he said.

A Home Offic spokes-man said he was unable to comment on the case.