Blog Post 2 Artists rally around Camerronian playwright facing deportation

On Saturday, September 10 Cameroonian playwright Lydia Besong and her husband are scheduled to be deported to Cameroon after the UKBA (United Kingdom Border Agency) raided their home in Manchester earlier this week. Writers Joan Bakewell and Andrea Levy along with other actors are criticizing the UK Border Agency for going against their own procedures. They argue that Lydia Besong and her husband nor their lawyer was told that their request for asylum that they had submitted had been rejected. Lydia’s husband is now being held at the Colnbrook Removal Centre in Heathrow while Lydia has gone into hiding for fear of being deported. Lydia had written several plays about seeking asylum and they have gotten negative press in her native country of Cameroon, so much so that she fears she would be persecuted if she had to return there. Before fleeing to the UK Lydia and her husband were tortured and imprisoned for their involvement in SBNC, a group in southern Cameroon that lobby for independence. A UKBA spokesperson has stated that the couple has been in the UK illegally and that the decision of their request for asylum does not have to be released when the UKBA believe that it would delay the process of deportation.

            This article shows that the UKBA is not giving people who seek asylum proper notification of the status of their request. It also makes the point that many countries, not just the U.S. do not have affective immigration policies that are easy to understand and follow the proper protocol. Especially in situations where a person is seeking asylum from their country of origin, there should be a different way to go about getting legal permission to remain in the country in which they are now living.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/09/actors-rally-cameroonian-playwright-deportation?INTCMP=SRCH