Goldsmiths student facing deportation

Goldsmiths Fine Art post-graduate student Laura O'Dochartaigh is currently facing deportation and is trying to raise funds to pay for legal fees for her fight to stay in the UK - where her son was born. She says:

'Our family and private life have been seriously disturbed by the UK Home Office. They have now extended the removal order to 23 of May, 2014. This ordeal began when we received wrong counsel from our previous solicitor stating it was OK to leave the country while we had a pending appeal. We visited my parents who had not seen their grandchild in months. Upon return I was detained and held at Heathrow Terminal 3 with my breastfed 1 year old. This was the beginning of a arduous and expensive journey through the legal system to try and stop Border Control and to exercise our Human Rights.

Both my husband and son, born in the north of Ireland, have the right to demand our family not be separated. We have started a new case but the Home Office is still refusing to withdraw the deportation order.  We need to raise enough funds to cover the massive legal expenses we have had to incur. Our savings have dwindled and we can no longer afford to continue this battle' (Donate here)

Laura's case is sadly not unusual - a reminder that behind all the political 'tough talk' about immigration are real people being forcibly separated from friends and family.