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Religious Beliefs

A legal advice charity represented a Chinese national who had fled to the UK after being subjected to torture and persecution due to her parents' spiritual beliefs.

B is Chinese. Her parents recognise a spiritual movement that is forbidden by the Chinese Government. In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the police pursued followers of this movement. Her parents were taken by Government officials and never returned. B was then arrested by police officers who posed as friends of her family.

She was locked in a cell at a police station. During her detention she was beaten, raped and threatened with death by officers and was not released until a friend intervened. She then fled to the UK. She was held at an immigration removal centre and claimed asylum.

A legal advice charity specialising in asylum accepted B's case and provided her with psychiatric and therapeutic care to assist with her recovery from the trauma that she had experienced in China. Independent experts on torture and human rights violations treated her and compiled a report to supplement her asylum application. They noted that she had sustained serious physical injury which had resulted in suicidal thoughts, uncontrollable shaking, panic attacks, distressing hallucinations, regular seizures, headaches, memory loss, sleeplessness and nightmares. She was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The charity represented B and the UK Border Agency recognised her as a refugee, enabling her to remain in the UK.

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