At 11th hour, Laghman resident allowed to stay in UK

KABUL (Pajhwok): An Afghan asylum seeker, who claims to be a torture survivor, has been allowed at the last minute to stay in the United Kingdom.

The 39-year-old from Laghman province, who has lived in Britain for nearly 11 years, was to be deported to Afghanistan via Istanbul on December 25.

But his solicitor Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis filed a judicial review in the immigration and asylum chamber, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

He told the assessing doctor he had been tortured and detained in his home country. He was allegedly hit with sticks and whips on his legs and being scarred by hot metal on his left knee, ankle and right arm.

The doctor said he had many scars consistent with the forms of torture he had described. The Home Office, accepting the report, said it planned to expel him from the UK quickly to save him from a long time in detention.

If returned to Laghman or Kabul, the man’s life would be in danger, the solicitor warned, saying his client might also face threats from insurgents.

Bell hailed the Home Office’s last-minute decision to defer its decision. ‘We are happy the Home Office deferred removal after we issued judicial review proceedings. We were referred this client’s case at the last minute and without this intervention he would have been removed on Christmas Day.

“We believe that our client, a torture survivor, has a strong claim for protection in the UK and are fighting for his right to stay. We now turn our attention to securing his release from detention at IRC Brook House so he can spend the holiday season at liberty.”

PAN Monitor/mud