British Court Allows Asylum for Chinese Woman Fleeing Forced Abortion
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 17, 2005
London, England (LifeNews.com) — A British court has told an immigration board that it should review its decision prohibiting a Chinese refuge from receiving asylum because she was fleeing a forced abortion and sterilization in China.
A British Court of Appeal ordered the Immigration Appeal Tribunal to reexamine the case of Chun Lan Liu, who was denied asylum but allowed to remain in the country on human rights grounds.
Because of that status, her ability to remain in the country is limited and her husband and two daughters cannot join her.
The immigration board denied the asylum because Chun did not belong to a particular social group, it said, that qualified her for the political status.
Chun lived in a rural area and qualified for a second child. When Chun became pregnant a third time, Chinese population control officials took her to a local hospital, delivered her eight-month old unborn child by caesarian section, and killed the baby.
Chun was later ordered back to the hospital for a sterilization, but she refused. Chinese authorities came to her home to take her by force, but she escaped and fled her hometown aboard a transport train. Later, she made her way to Britain.
The court decision is similar to many recent rulings by appeals courts in the United States, which have overturned immigration board decisions against allowing Chinese men and women escaping the population control policies of China.
