Immigration Solicitors

The High Court has ordered an urgent hearing of the case of a Nigerian asylum seeker on hunger strike, after refusing to release him on bail.

Isa Muaza, 45, is being detained at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow and has been on hunger strike for 90 days. His case will now be heard by three judges on Monday (25/11/13), after he was refused bail despite his lawyers saying he is close to death.

The website Politics.co.uk ha reported that Mr Muazu has lost his sight, is experiencing chest pains and is having difficulty breathing.

Campaigners have criticised the government’s hardline immigration stance – lawyers representing Home Secretary Theresa May last week said Mr Muaza was “fit to travel” and it is thought a flight to Nigeria was being arranged for him.

Vice president of the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Maurice Kay, conceded that Mr Muazu is “in a sorry state”.

He was detained on 25 July this year, after arriving in the UK on a visitor’s visa in 2007, which he overstayed. After his asylum claim was rejected in August, he started a hunger strike in September. In a statement Mr Muaza said he was “a skeleton and almost dead”:

“I am refusing to eat because my asylum claim was not treated fairly and I will not give up my protest,” he said. “There is so little of me left and I am not afraid.

“But they – the authorities – have not treated me as a human being and that is wrong.”


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For expert legal advice on immigration and asylum, contact Duncan Lewis immigration lawyers on 020 7923 4020.