A young man who was imprisoned for 11 years in the United Kingdom for manslaughter has complained from his prison cell after learning about a plan to deport him to Nigeria on completion of his sentence.
The 22-year-old Junior Bayode was convicted of manslaughter in the death of 15-year-old schoolboy, Sofyen Belamouadden, who was attacked by at least 20 youths on March 25, 2010. About 16 other convictions were made in connection with the case.
Bayode was just 16 when the attack on Belamouadden took place. He was sentenced in July 2013 and will complete his jail term in 2019.
Bayode, whose mother hailed from Nigeria, in a letter to British authorities, questioned his purported deportation on the grounds that he had never visited Nigeria.
The letter read: “I was born in Germany on the 29th of January 1993 and came to the UK with my mother as an infant when I was 9 months old.
“I have neither travelled nor been to any other country since I arrived in the UK over 20 years ago.
“My past, my present and my future is firmly rooted in British soil, hence why I am struggling to understand why I have been served with a deportation order to a country I have never been to – Nigeria.
“I concede that this is where my mother is from but she has lived in the UK since 1993.
“The Home Office have disregarded everything about me; from my childhood to the relationship I have with my partner of 4 years, to the bonds between myself, my mother and siblings, and all for what?
“To achieve a target? I understand that the Home Office must consider many factors when they make such decisions, but it appears they only, misconstrue and even invent factors that work in favour of their pursuit, to reduce net migration at any cost, regardless of the devastation they cause and the human rights they breach.
“I was distraught when I read on the order that I can only appeal after my deportation.
“I may not have been born here but all I know is the British way of life.”
Bayode is to be deported under a ‘deport first, appeal later’ policy which the United Kingdom Home Office was granted in October 2015, a policy which removes the right of foreign prisoners to appeal their deportation from within the UK.
Under the policy, foreign prisoners can only appeal against deportation from within the United Kingdom if they can prove there is a “real risk of serious irreversible harm” if deported.