Signed Ricky Hatton shirt on ebay for anti-deportation campaign
Article published: Friday, June 18th 2010
A Man City shirt signed by local boxing legend Ricky Hatton has been put up for auction on ebay. The money raised will help cover the legal costs of the successful campaign against the deportation of Lydia Besong and Bernard Batey earlier this year.
Lydia Besong and husband Bernard Batey
There is only another £176 needed to meet the £2,800 owed to Latitude Law for the couple’s legal fees. Bidding for the shirt starts at £95 and RAPAR caseworker Richard Goulding hopes it will go a long way to meeting those costs. The shirt itself was donated by a supporter of the campaign, which MULE covered between December and March (the articles are here, here and here).
The couple were granted a reprieve after an energetic campaign managed to get Lydia released from the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre following a High Court injunction (read Lydia’s account of her time in Yarl’s Wood here). The couple have not however been granted asylum and live under constant threat of another deportation order.
“Thanks for the great support everyone showed last Christmas in getting Lydia out of detention,” said Richard.
“Unfortunately we’re still waiting for the Home Office to consider her fresh claim but the High Court injunction that was granted means that she and Bernard cannot be deported while we wait for their case to be heard.”
Lydia, meanwhile, is continuing her community work through Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) and her play ‘How I Became an Asylum Seeker’, written to give voice to her and other women’s experiences, has now been performed by members of WAST in Manchester, Salford and Liverpool.
MULE urges you to dig deep and help the cause before 27 June – the shirt can be found here.
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