Newroz and Beriwan will be deported to Germany

Beriwan Ay told reporters that she wanted "nothing else" but to stay in Britain.

Her comments, from inside Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre in Gatwick, came 24 hours before the Ay family was due to be deported to Germany.

They were moved south of the border on Friday from Dungavel Detention Centre in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, where they had been held for more than a year after leaving their home of three years in Northfleet, Kent.

The action followed her mother Yurdugal's failed appeal against deportation before the House of Lords on Thursday.

Beriwan told reporters that 10 security guards woke the family in Dungavel during the early hours of Friday and packed their bags.

"I was very frightened, scared, shocked and upset," she said.

'Face persecution'

Asked how she was feeling ahead of being deported, Beriwan said: "I am very nervous. I don't know what to say and I don't know what to do."

The Ay family made and lost a series of applications for refugee status in Germany over many years since they first arrived from Turkey in 1988.

After the applications failed they travelled clandestinely in a lorry to Britain in June 1999.

They faced being deported after it was eventually discovered the Germans had already repeatedly dealt with their asylum claim.

Campaigners listen to Beriwan's message

Beriwan told reporters that she did not want to return to Germany as the authorities would return her to Turkey where she "may face persecution".

She also spoke of her fears for her father, Ali, who has not been heard of since he was deported to Germany and then returned to Turkey last year.

"I think he is in prison or something happened to him on the way," she said.

"I'll never know what happened to my dad."

On her treatment, while in the UK, Beriwan added: "It is a disgrace that children are put in a detention centre.

"It (Dungavel) is a prison and it should be closed down."

The Ay family's lawyer Aamer Anwar lodged a fresh application for asylum on behalf of the family's four children, who are aged between seven and 14.

However, he said the Home Office had refused to consider it.

Mr Anwar claimed a 142-seater jet had been booked by the government to fly the Turkish Kurd family to Germany on Tuesday morning.