21st March 2019
Mr A and Mr AT were both removed from the UK. The Home Office was ordered to bring them back. The BBC2 Victoria Derbyshire programme interviewed them both yesterday, together with Theresa Schleicher of Medical Justice. Watch the interview here which starts at It starts at 46 mins 41 secs.
Last week the High Court granted permission to Medical Justice to judicially review the unscrupulous policy of removing unwanted migrants from the UK without warning. The Home Office’s policy enabling it to refuse a migrant’s case and forcibly remove them from the UK, within hours and in many cases without access to legal representation, was suspended as interim relief. Read the Medical Justice press release for further information.
Mr A “They took my phone. I couldn’t call my mum. I couldn’t call my lawyer”
Theresa Schleicher “So with no warning he could be loaded onto a van and flown to Africa, which is what happened. He didn’t know what was going to happen, it sounds like he didn’t have any medication with him, he was not in a fit state to go to Africa. He wasn’t able to contact his lawyer, or get a lawyer, get legal advice and bring the arguments which he needed to bring which meant he was unlawfully removed and he had to be brought back”
Mr AT “I felt broken and disappointed”
“They took me to my flat where I live with my wife. They told me to pack up my belongings. They they took me to a detention centre … I said my wife is heavily pregnant, 8 months at the time. They said there is no evidence for that. And there is no application right now. They had been in the flat. The had seen my wife there. She was crying at them, asking them to not detain me. They should have released me but they said No … I had arranged a meeting with a lawyer but I was detained before it could happen”. Victoria Derbyshire “Your wife gave birth to your first child when this was happening … and how did that effect you ?” Mr AT “It affected me greatly because I missed that whole process. My wife was alone, suffering a lot”.
