MP backs campaign to delay deportation

"My life has been blown apart after nine years in limbo"

By Roisin Gad el Rab

A LAST-ditch campaign has been started to save a Cameroon-born asylum seeker from being deported to his home country tomorrow (Saturday) where he claims he faces certain torture.

London, Uk, 15 Feb 2008 - An online petition and a Facebook group have been set up to rescue “popular, kind, model citizen” Guy Njike, 41, who lives in Holloway Road, from being sent home.

When Mr Njike, who has lived in England for the past nine years, went out on his lunch break to make his monthly report to the Home Office on Monday, he expected to be back within the hour.

But the human rights activist, who works in Selfridges food hall, has still not returned from his break, after being arrested and imprisoned in cells at Southwark police station.

Speaking from his confinement in Southwark yesterday Mr Njike said: “My life has been blown apart. For nine years I’ve been waiting in limbo and now it’s come to this.”

MP Jeremy Corbyn has written to the Home Office to ask for a delay in his deportation to give time for a proper case to be prepared.

Mr Corbyn said: “I’m very impressed with the character and achievements of this man. He has been of great assistance to other students in his college. I’m impressed with the support he has received from teachers and students all over the country.”

Friends of Mr Njike, who fled to England after being tortured and imprisoned for his work as an opposition party activist while a law student at the University of Yaounde, have launched an internet campaign to secure his release.

Within 48 hours of setting up a petition, Sara Hall, who studied for her masters in human rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies with Mr Njike and Mr Njike’s friend Kirrilee Pells, had collected nearly 400 signatures from colleagues, friends and fellow students all over the country.

Ms Hall said: “A lot of people have stopped their lives to help. He could be sent back on Saturday and tortured on Sunday for all we know. The campaign has spiralled. It’s a case which outrages people who know him.

“He’s a very nice guy who’s just really kind. No one deserves this but him least of all. He’s so committed to human rights and has a strong concern to help the lives of others.

“You would think he had enough to worry about with his own experiences, but he still had time to do all this volunteering.”

Mr Nijke, who spends his free time working for Medicins du Monde, Age Concern and the Refugee Council, has been fighting for asylum since his arrival but has heard nothing from the Home Office since his final plea three years ago.

He has received counselling for mental torture suffered in Cameroon and has a head injury from the beatings he says he received at the hands of Cameroon police, which sends him into deep depressions and causes painful migraines.

Source: Islington Tribune

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