A TAIWANESE asylum seeker who lived in Newport for 18 months is still being held at a detention centre a week after she was meant to be removed from the UK.

Emily Yeh, 33, is wanted by Taiwan’s government for leaving her position as a spy before claiming asylum in Wales last summer.

But she remains at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, where she has been since December 16, because she has been diagnosed with kidney stones and is unfit to fly.

The diagnosis was made on December 23. She should have taken a flight back to Taiwan later that night.

She is waiting for her medical records to be given to Yarl’s Wood by the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, where she was treated for a few days when she was originally detained by Gwent Police on behalf of the UK Border Agency on December 10.

She said she was waiting for news on what will happen to her.

Taiwanese media have reported if she is returned to the country before January 13, she will face a military court.

But if she is returned after then, she will face a civilian court, because of an amendment made by the Taiwanese government in August.

The Taiwanese government has said Ms Yeh’s prison sentence is likely to be five years and rejected her claim that she could face the death penalty if sent back.

One of two solicitors working for Ms Yeh, Mike McGarvey, is trying to raise money so she can launch an appeal against her removal.

Ms Yeh spent time volunteering for Oxfam and as an interpreter for the Welsh Refugee Council when she lived in Newport and stayed at Home Office accommodation on Chepstow Road.

Friend Helen Aesa said she and other members of the M.Y. Must Stay campaign group are writing letters to the Home Office and seeking an expert report on the conditions prisoners in Taiwan face.