By Abu B. Shaw, London.
According to media soures in Britain, the British government is at the moment putting legal papers together to finally execute the deportation of a Sierra Leonean football star.
A couple of British newspapers, including the Mirror and the Telegraph, recently stated that the midfield machine, Alhassan Bangura(pictured), is not a happy lad as he prepares for a court hearing on Monday, November 26, to face grilling from the immigration department.
Bangura, 19, who plays for English Championship side Watford Football Club, will be accompanied to court by his club manager Aidy Boothroyd.
Manager Boothroyd is determined to tell immigration officials that sending Bangura back to his native country to earn a living from football is like asking Frank Sinatra "to play the Three Feathers in Batley on a Friday night."
According to the Home Office, Bangura is presently a footballer who does not legally exist. He has no documentation to prove his identity. Not a single paper even from Sierra Leone.
“Bangura currently cannot get a driving licence in the UK let alone get a UK passport. This is only possible if there is documentary proof of his identity and he would then be cleared to stay in Britain,” Home Office officials told the press.
Bangura is reported to have fled to the UK to seek asylum four years ago after his father was butchered in the civil war in Sierra Leone and he escaped the clutches of a voodoo cult and child trafficking network.
In early 2007, this teenager was cleared to stay in Britain but the Home Office subsequently lodged an appeal on a legal technicality claiming that Bangura’s status as an asylum seeker had changed when he turned 18 and was classified as an adult.
Watford FC, currently topping the Championship table, are not lying down and allow their prized asset to be deported. “It’s a disgraceful way to treat a genuine refugee who, far from living off state benefits and being a burden to the taxpayers, had paid 120,000 pounds sterling in tax himself last year.”
“If he was sent back to Africa, it would destroy a promising career, break up a family and weaken Aidy Boothroyd’s squad at a stroke. We are going to fight this battle all the way,” a spokesperson at Watford FC noted.
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