PRIME Minister John Major has personally threatened to have two children deported to Hong Kong if their parents, also due to be forced out of Britain after 12 years, leave them behind to continue their education.
Mr Major wrote to Tom Pendry, the local MP for Cheung Ka-fu and his wife Cheung Kit-ying, telling them that if they opted to leave 12-year-old Helen and 16-year-old Alan behind when they are deported for overstaying their permitted time in Britain, then 'it will become immediately necessary to begin deportation proceedings against them'.
'They will then be deported to Hong Kong in due course to join their parents,' he said.
The children, who were born in Holland where the family worked before coming to Britain, speak hardly any Cantonese. Alan visited Hong Kong once as a baby but Helen has never been to the territory.
'I don't know how Mr Major can be so nasty,' Helen said.
'My brother and I haven't done anything to deserve it. It makes me feel ill and I can't stop crying.' The latest moves, which imply that deportation for the parents is imminent, comes in the face of a long campaign for the family to be allowed to stay in the UK involving MPs and even a petition from all 750 children at the children's school.
Alan, who speaks with a broad Manchester accent, said: 'If my parents were forced to abandon us I can't blame them because they would only be doing what they thought was best for us. I see John Major's comment at the end of the letter as a threat.' A family friend in Manchester has offered to look after the children so they can continue their education - Alan has nine GCSEs - in Britain.
