Darfuri man wins deportation appeal in Britain
April 3, 2007 (LONDON) — A Darfuri asylum seeker due to be deported on Tuesday has been granted an 11th hour reprieve.
Mohamed Abdulhadi Ali and his supporters feared he faced certain torture if the UK Government went ahead with plans to fly him back to the to the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday afternoon.
But the deportation order has been postponed pending an appeal from his lawyers just hours before take off from Heathrow airport.
Abdulhadi’s lawyers argued that the Government must take into account evidence from a deportee returned to the country a week ago who was tortured on arrival by intelligence agents.
The Home Office had said that under present guidance it is considered safe to return individuals fleeing the violence in Darfur to the capital.
Abdulhadi had told The Times: “If I have to go, I will be killed the moment the plane lands. I am a Zarghawa. There is no future for me if I go back.
“Britain gave me the feeling I could be safe here. Now they are sending me to my death. Is this human rights?”
The Government has been urged to halt any deportations pending a Court of Appeal judgment due on Wednesday which could rule such removals unsafe.
The Aegis Trust, a UK-based charity that campaigns against genocide worldwide, has written to British Airways urging it to refuse to fly Mr Ali.
Hratche Koundarjian of the Aegis Trust said that campaigners had been planning last-minute protests when the news came through. He said: “This is an 11-and-a-half-hour stay of execution.”
(AP)