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AN asylum seeker has staved off deportation from Britain because of her Beatles tattoo.
The 28-year-old said she would be at risk of harm if her Fab Four inking was seen in her native Iraq.
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She lost an asylum claim in 2016 and was told her appeal rights were exhausted two years later.
But a tribunal heard that the tattoo on her shoulder of Paul McCartney’s 1968 song Blackbird showed she was a “thoroughly westernised woman”.
The inking bears the lyrics: “Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”
The Kurdish asylum seeker, who said she had ditched Islam, feared the motif would put her at risk of being persecuted by her family and society.
She said of the tattoo: “I feel trapped like a caged bird whilst I was living with my family and they did not allow me to live freely like I am doing today.
“I also feel that since coming to the UK, I feel independent and liberated, as I have no one to control me.
“I believe that I would surely be persecuted in Iraq for having a tattoo, as body art is perceived as rebellious.”
Officials argued there was no evidence she would be at risk.
But an asylum judge in Cardiff quashed the decisions to deport her and to dismiss her appeal.
Judge Andrew Grubb said if she could prove she was at risk then she might have a right to stay on human rights grounds.
A new hearing will take place at a later date.
Migrants toll 8,000
NEARLY 8,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year having crossed the English Channel in small boats.
Some 167 people made the hazardous journey in 13 craft on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Defence.
It followed four days without any crossings.
The total for this year now stands at 7,957.
The latest crossings came as the Home Office said it would begin the process of informing the first asylum seekers that they could be flown to Rwanda under its new resettlement scheme.
Flights are expected to begin in “the coming months”.
