Yashika Bageerathi: Mother's Day reprieve for Mauritian student facing deportation

Yashika Bageerathi (Sky)

The student threatened with being deported to Mauritius has been given a last-minute reprieve, a spokesman for her school has said.

Yashika Bageerath's friends and school had engaged in a campaign to persuade flight operator Air Mauritius not to let her board the flight due to take off from Heathrow at 5pm on Sunday.

Yashika has now been told she will not be on the flight, although details remain unclear, said the spokesman for the Oasis Academy Hadley in north London.

The spokesman added that Yashika would remain in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre where she has been since 19 March.

Air Mauritius have said that flight MK053 has not been cancelled and is still scheduled to leave Heathrow.

The Home Office said they do not comment on individual cases.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Yashika's school will attempt to make a last-ditch legal attempt to put a stop to her removal later today.

A legal team will lodge a High Court injunction to prevent the deportation. Lawyers have already had one appeal fail, a spokesman for the school added.

Promising student Yashika came to the UK with her mother, sister and brother in 2011 to escape a relative who was physically abusive and claimed asylum last summer.

On Tuesday evening, Yashika, her mother and younger brother and sister were told they all faced the threat of deportation after receiving a letter from the Home Office.

Yashika's mother, who is also facing deportation, was “struggling” and “tearful”, said the school's principal, Lynne Dawes.

Supporters of Yashika Bageerathi present a petition to the Home Office to stop her being deported

A petition by the students calling on immigration minister James Brokenshire and Home Secretary Theresa May to stop the deportation has garnered nearly 165,000 signatures on website change.org.

Shadow immigration minister David Hanson said he would be making contact with the Home Office asking them to review the decision.

The MP said on Twitter: “I am contacting the home office minister to intervene personally in £yashika case to ask for urgent further review.”

Mrs May has said that the plight of the teenager had gone through the “proper process” and she would not be stepping in to prevent her deportation.

Speaking over the phone from Yarl's Wood, Yashika told Sky News that she did not know what to do, and that she just wanted the opportunity to finish her A-levels.

She said: “I just want to be with my mum right now and celebrate Mother's Day as we do every year because I know she is very special to me.”

PA