13-year-old deportation-threatened schoolgirl allowed to stay in Denmark
The deportation of 13-year-old Yiming Liu has been suspended after her lawyer appealed against the decision.
The girl would otherwise have been forced into leaving Denmark today after being informed last week that her application for family reunification with her mother and Danish stepfather had been rejected, reports TV Midtvest.
“We can breathe easily for now,” lawyer Jacob Engelbrechtsen said according to the report.
Engelbrechtsen appealed to the Danish Immigration Service, which decided Wednesday to suspend the deportation while the appeal is processed, allowing Yiming to remain in the country in the meantime.
The lawyer estimates the processing period for the appeal to take around seven months, according to TV Midtvest.
The case caused a stir in the Danish media after the family’s application for reunification was rejected by the Danish Immigration Service, which stated that Yiming would not be able to “achieve the necessary attachment to Denmark that is required for a successful integration.”
“It goes against all common sense that this can be done to a little girl. But luckily justice won,” Yiming’s stepfather Kjeld Gaard-Frederiksen told TV2 after receiving the news at the family’s home in Silkeborg.
The girl’s classmates had planned to go on strike from lessons in protest had authorities gone through with the decision to deport Yiming, according to TV2.
READ ALSO: 'Leave country by June 10th': Denmark to American wife of astrophysicist
“We are going to the school now. We’ll give her a hug and let her know that she can stay in her class, who stood beside her and all of her family,” Gaard-Frederiksen told TV2.
Yiming, who is currently in a 6th grade class for some subjects and a beginner class for Danish, has been scheduled to join a normal 7th grade class after the summer holiday.
“I am scared. I have my best friends here, and I’m scared of having to leave my mother,” she said to TV2 prior to the suspension of her case.
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The girl would otherwise have been forced into leaving Denmark today after being informed last week that her application for family reunification with her mother and Danish stepfather had been rejected, reports TV Midtvest.
“We can breathe easily for now,” lawyer Jacob Engelbrechtsen said according to the report.
Engelbrechtsen appealed to the Danish Immigration Service, which decided Wednesday to suspend the deportation while the appeal is processed, allowing Yiming to remain in the country in the meantime.
The lawyer estimates the processing period for the appeal to take around seven months, according to TV Midtvest.
The case caused a stir in the Danish media after the family’s application for reunification was rejected by the Danish Immigration Service, which stated that Yiming would not be able to “achieve the necessary attachment to Denmark that is required for a successful integration.”
“It goes against all common sense that this can be done to a little girl. But luckily justice won,” Yiming’s stepfather Kjeld Gaard-Frederiksen told TV2 after receiving the news at the family’s home in Silkeborg.
The girl’s classmates had planned to go on strike from lessons in protest had authorities gone through with the decision to deport Yiming, according to TV2.
READ ALSO: 'Leave country by June 10th': Denmark to American wife of astrophysicist
“We are going to the school now. We’ll give her a hug and let her know that she can stay in her class, who stood beside her and all of her family,” Gaard-Frederiksen told TV2.
Yiming, who is currently in a 6th grade class for some subjects and a beginner class for Danish, has been scheduled to join a normal 7th grade class after the summer holiday.
“I am scared. I have my best friends here, and I’m scared of having to leave my mother,” she said to TV2 prior to the suspension of her case.
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