Cameroonian playwright returns to Manchester
Article published: Friday, January 27th 2012
Asylum-seeking playwright Lydia Besong and her husband Bernard Batey have returned to Manchester following a dramatic eleventh-hour battle against deportation.
Lydia Besong. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
The couple arrived back at Bury late Wednesday night to the relief of supporters. Both had been detained and threatened with removal from the UK following the rejection of their claim for asylum.
The refusal provoked outcry among local and national human rights groups however, and deportation was averted when an application by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to overturn Besong and Batey’s right to judicial review was refused by the courts less than 24 hours before their removal was set to go ahead.
The pair have testified that they were subjected to imprisonment and torture in their home country of Cameroon for their involvement with political movements which campaign for the self-determination of the country’s English-speaking minority.
On her return to Manchester Besong thanked her supporters, who fought a high-profile campaign lobbying the Home Office and appealing for her release from detention. “I call them my pillars. If I’m standing here today now talking to you it is because of them,” she said.
“They are like my pillars after the support I had. They are really my support and they lift my spirit up. They give me the strength to know I’m not fighting alone.”
“Greater care and clarity”
It has also emerged that the Home Office has since withdrawn the decision to refuse their protection claim, although it is still not known what the outcome of new considerations on their claim will be. Their solicitor, Gary McIndoe of the human rights firm Latitude Law, said the government’s treatment of the case “continues to baffle”.
In a statement, McIndoe said: “Having confirmed that they are to reconsider their decision on Bernard’s asylum claim, UKBA have today authorised Bernard and Lydia’s release from detention, only 24 hours after communicating to us a refusal to release them.” He added, “We hope the substance of the risks faced by Bernard and Lydia in Cameroon today can now be looked at with greater care and clarity.”
A UKBA spokesperson stated: “The UK has a proud record of offering sanctuary to those who need it, but where we and the courts have found they do not qualify for protection they must return to their home country… Our rules are clear [that] if you have no right to be in the UK you will be required to leave or you will be removed.”
Both Besong and Batey have a long record of working with human rights groups in Manchester including Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST), the refugee organisation Revive and human rights charity RAPAR. Besong is also a playwright, with productions of her debut play How I Became An Asylum Seeker performed nationwide by WAST members.
Cameroon has received repeated international condemnation by international monitors such as Amnesty International and others for its human rights abuses. Critics include the US State Department, which has noted how “security forces committed numerous unlawful killings; they regularly engaged in torture, beatings, and other abuses, particularly of detainees and prisoners.”
Strong support
High profile support has been won for the campaign, with supporters such as actor Juliet Stephenson and War Horse author Michael Morpurgo speaking out against the couple’s treatment. Gillian Slovo, President of English PEN, which campaigns for the freedom of speech for writers worldwide, described the news as “fantastic”. She added: “Please pass on my congratulations for the campaign they have waged and my hopes that this will now allow the two some stability here.”
Besong told MULE she hoped her upcoming play, Down with the Dictator, would provoke discussion of dictatorships in the developing world and the treatment by the West of those fleeing oppression. She warned that many others who had not received the backing she has are in similar situations, and in need of support.
“I would like justice. Not only for myself, I would like justice for everybody”, she said. “I know it’s happening to other asylum seekers, like for instance those who are not outspoken. How they handle their situation I don’t know.”
She added, “If you see an asylum seeker in need of any form of support please, if you are able to offer anything please do, they really need the support. Because if not, without that support, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
Richard Goulding
More: Migration and asylum, News
Comments
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So the UKBA has been vindicated.
It is a fair and just organisation which has seen fit to stop two people being deported to a backward country.
What was all the fuss about?
Comment by pete on January 27, 2012 at 10:37 pm -
[…] in the UK. Besong was detained twice, with the pair coming within hours of deportation attempts thwarted due to the last-minute intervention of the […]
Pingback by » Cameroonian playwright Lydia Besong wins right to asylum - MULE on June 1, 2012 at 4:32 pm
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