Don't want to get into any debates about asylum seekers, politics, etc..... but my son's friend has been deported (see full story below).
He and his friends are gutted and now fear for his life !!
Deported
An asylum-seeking family have been deported to Uganda despite the last-ditch attempts of campaigners to save them.
Sarah Hata and her five children who had been living in Norley Hall were taken from a detention centre early yesterday and put on a flight via Brussels to Entebbe in Uganda.
The family, who fled their homeland in fear of their lives 18 months ago, had already escaped deportation three times – the most recent resulted in the youngest child Morris collapsing.
But yesterday the family were taken from the Yarlswood Detention Centre in Bedford and put on a plane.
The move came a day after a medical examination which concluded that the family was neither mentally nor physically fit to undertake the journey.
Spokesman for the Friends of Sarah Hata Bill Burrows learned the news from another asylum-seeker at Yarlswood who phoned to alert him.
Mr Burrows said: "Dr Frank Arnold, who is attached to the Medical Foundation, carried out an independent examination on our behalf and reported that Sarah's injuries were consistent with torture and said that all of the family were suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of their experiences.
"Sarah has no money and will surely be picked up by the authorities as soon as she arrives in the country. I am extremely fearful for her safety."
The campaign group is now applying for a full judicial review of the case demanding the UK Foreign Office and Ugandan High Commission come to an arrangement to give the family special protection in the country.
Mrs Hata, 32, says she was raped, tortured and imprisoned for five years.
Her husband John is presumed murdered for his role as a bodyguard for State President Yoweri Museveni, who has been fighting a 20-year battle against the Lord's Resistance Army, to retain power.
Members of the Wigan community have been lobbying politicians to secure the intervention of immigration minister Tony McNulty.
Ruth Fisher, chairman of governors at St Cuthbert's RC Primary School, which some of the Hata children attended, said she had been "inundated" by parents wanting to support the family.
Wigan MP Neil Turner said: "There are probably grounds for a judicial review, although given that the family have already been deported it may be more difficult.
"I have spoken to the doctor who examined Mrs Hata and his report will state that there is clear evidence the family have been tortured in Uganda and are still suffering from the effects.
"I understand there is an amnesty involving members of the Lords Resistance Movement but I will be writing to the Ugandan High Commission to ask that special attention is given to the protection of this family."
A spokesman for the Home Office said: "The Government takes a robust approach to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to be here.
"Removing failed asylum seekers is a key part of our work to ensure effective immigration controls and removal is undertaken in the most sensitive and safe way possible."
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