A HUNTINGDON woman has started a campaign to secure the release of one of the town’s ‘characters’ from a detention centre.

The Hunts Post reported last week how a rough sleeper, known as Wendy, was arrested at Huntingdon District Council’s Pathfinder House headquarters on December 1, because of concerns over her immigration status.

The 62-year-old, thought to be from Hong Kong, was then taken to Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire and now faces possible deportation.

After reading of Wendy’s plight in last week’s paper, Sarah-Jayne Wilsher, 26, of Lammas Gardens, Huntingdon started a Facebook page in support of Wendy, despite never having met her.

“I used to see her sleeping in the doorway of Lloyds bank in town and it made me feel really guilty,” she said.

“I knew there was a lot of support for her so I decided to set up a Facebook group just to gauge people’s reactions at first, as a starting point.

“We are trying to get the people of Huntingdon behind us to get her released as it is not in the public interest for her to be detained.”

The Facebook group has so far attracted a mixed response.

Daniel Kavanagh wrote: “I love her [Wendy] but at the end of the day she was here with nothing going for her.”

Leigh Howard added: “The thing about this lady is even if she is here illegally at least she didn’t come over here dodging tax payments and bleeding the benefits system – she wasn’t hurting anyone.”

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: “When someone is found not to have the right to remain in the country we expect them to leave.

“We would expect them to do so voluntarily, but if they fail to do so we would seek to enforce their removal.”

INFORMATION: For details of the campaign to support Wendy visit www. facebook.com/events/200192853399493