These are some examples of successful anti-deportation campaigns. In most cases a combination of a strong campaign group and quality legal action has managed to stop a removal and win the right to stay
“Josh” and family
Josh arrived alone in the UK in 2007, aged 14. He was fostered and rebuilt his life with his new family, with whom he has now lived for four years. His British family said, when launching their campaign for Josh to stay in the UK:
“Our son is kind, generous, gentle, warm and friendly. He is a credit to our loving family. Our children are all honest and highly respectful. We feel very proud of them all. Having to fight to keep our family with us, this just doesn’t seem fair. Our son needs his family and we need him. The threat to remove our son would rip the hearts out of us as a family, as it would do by removing any child from their home. Our son’s life would be destroyed by this proposed removal and so would ours.”
After a long legal fight and campaign, Josh finally won the right to stay with his family in the UK
Lydia Besong and Bernard Batey
Lydia and Bernard, both long standing human rights activists, have fought a six-year, high profile campaign for asylum in the UK.
On 16 May 2012, the campaign team at RAPAR wrote with the brilliant news that the asylum Tribunal finally recognised that their political and cultural activities will place them at risk if they are returned to Cameroon.
“This is a deeply important victory for everyone interested in ensuring the safety of our refugees” - Gary McIndoe, Lydia and Bernard’s solicitor
Throughout their struggle the couple has been supported by the parishioners of their Rochdale church, St Ann’s, and have won the backing of human rights groups in Manchester and English PEN, the organisation which campaigns for the freedom of speech of writers worldwide.
Their campaign also drew high-profile supporters including actor Juliet Stevenson, War Horse author and former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, leading lawyer Helena Kennedy and Stockport-based writer Joan Bakewell. Read about the campaign here.
Charles Atangana
Charles is a journalist who fled imprisonment and torture in Cameroon. Seeking sanctuary in the UK, he settled in Glasgow becoming active with his local Citizens Advice Bureau and, importantly, with his branch of the National Union of Journalists.
When Charles was refused asylum, detained and threatened with deportation, the NUJ, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and NCADC formed a solid campaign. The campaign was inspiring, and NCADC were overjoyed when Charles won his right to stay in April 2011, and was a speaker at our summer AGM and conference in Glasgow.