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Corrie star battles for asylum rights

JULIE Hesmondhalgh is known to millions of people around the world as Hayley Cropper, the first transsexual character to appear in a soap opera and now one of the much-loved residents of Coronation Street.

Her bumbling lovable character joined the soap in 1998, winning the heart of Roy but struggling to win the approval of her workmates at the knickers factory. Eventually, of course, she fell in love with Roy and her colleagues and neighbours accepted her on the Street. She is now loved by fans everywhere.

So it is the love for this character that Julie Hesmondahalgh hopes can be put to good use to help other people she sees as being far more victimised than Hayley Cropper ever was.

She is backing a campaign to stop the deportation of exiled journalist Mansoor Hassan to Pakistan where, she says, his family face "certain detention and almost certain death".

Mansoor Hassan's journalistic work led to exposing government corruption, political complicity with honour killings and illegal drug dealing.

Because of his work he was beaten up, shot at and his family, his wife Aqila and four children, were subject to severe barbiturate poisoning. Mansoor and his family were living in fear and fled to Britain where they hoped they would be safe but their application was refused.

Now they are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights against the government's decision not to grant him asylum.

As soon as Julie heard about his case she decided to get involved, seeing it as a cause important enough to take her away from a busy schedule at Granada.

"I would not feel comfortable sleeping in my bed at night if I did not do something to help," she said.

"How could I, knowing that a family could be sent back to this terrible harassment? I think the characters on the Street would do the same.

"There is such a huge amount of paranoia and fear about asylum seekers and the political parties are exploiting that. They are not talking at all about what people are fleeing from and why they are here.

"Supporting refugees and asylum seekers is a very unpopular and unfashionable but these are the causes that need the most help.

"You can't really hope to change people's minds but even if I can change just one mind it's worth it. Mansoor is a respected journalist, so here is one asylum seeker who maybe they can see as slightly different.

"I also want people who are refugees to know there is somebody on the telly who is on their side and that not everyone is wishing them ill."

Julie was born in Accrington and wanted to be a social worker before she tried acting. She went on to train as an actress at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and made appearances in The Bill and alongside Victoria Wood before making her big break into Coronation Street.

While appearing as Hayley Cropper she has been at many anti-racist events, including the Kick Racism Out of Football campaign and the anti-BNP rally at Manchester Town Hall, where she attended with co-star Shobna Gulati (who plays Sunita). Julie has vowed to keep involved in the campaign to help Mansoor and his family who are living in Manchester and are actively involved in their community.

"I think it's extraordinary that it takes the power of television to do this and it is incredibly frustrating," she said.

"But at the same time I'm very proud to support this family in this incredibly important benchmark case in asylum."

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