British government attempt to deport a ‘near death’ Nigerian asylum seeker, Isa Muazu, was thwarted on Friday after the Nigerian government denied the chartered private jet rights to land.
The private jet, hired at huge cost to the British government, returned to the UK, from Malta, with Mr. Muazu after hours in the air, sparking backlash against the UK government.
Mr. Muazu was bundled out of the medical wing of Harmondsworth detention centre, amidst protests calling for his release, on Friday for the flight to Nigeria.
Protesters from the Stop Deportations Network closed Harmondsworth detention centre, earlier on Friday, in an attempt to stop Mr. Muazu’s deportation, with one man supergluing himself to the gates of the detention centre. The man was eventually arrested at 7a.m. by a specialist police team who took several hours to remove him.
Mr. Muazu, said to be only skin and bones fat, has been on hunger strike for 100 days, to protest UK’s refusal to grant him asylum. His medical team declared him unfit to fly or be kept in detention, while rights groups condemned the British government’s desperation to remove him from UK.
Mr. Muazu entered the UK on a valid visa in 2007, but decided to remain in the UK for fears he will be killed by Boko Haram, whom he claimed had killed several of his relatives. After seeking asylum he was put in fast track detention, and his claims expressly rejected.
Mr. Muazu’s lawyers told the BBC he had been returned to the medical wing at Harmondsworth detention centre since returning from the failed deportation.
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