NewordealforGhanaman battling deportation order
Student now held in detention centre as friend tells of fears
A GLASGOW student who faces deportation to Ghana is still being held in detention.
Lord Elias Mensah Apetsi, 43, who studies at Strathclyde University, was last week told he was to be flown back to the African country on Tuesday after his Leave to Remain application was submitted late.
Prominent politicians called on the Home Office to urgently review the case.
And the National Union for Students staged protests in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The award-winning student has lived in the UK for 10 years and in Glasgow for the last three years.
He has a three-year-old son. Lord, who is being held in a detention centre in Gatwick, was warned he would be forced on to a charter flight on Tuesday.
He was not, but he is still being kept in the centre.
His friend Raj Jeyaray, vice-president of diversity at Strathclyde Student Association, has been in close contact with Lord.
He travelled to London to campaign for his release.
Raj told the Evening Times: “Lord has not boarded a plane but he is being kept in the Gatwick detention centre next to the runway so he can hear the planes.
“It is not good for his state of mind. I am back in Glasgow but I plan to continue to campaign for Lord.
“I won’t be happy until he is back in the city.”
Masters student Lord was detained on Friday, March 11, after reporting to the Border and Immigration Agency in Brand Street, Glasgow.
He is required to do so every month as part of his asylum agreement. But this time he was taken into custody after it emerged a fresh application for Leave to Remain had not been submitted on time.
The National Union of Students says this was “human error”, for which Lord was not to blame.
Since being detained Lord has been transferred to Dungavel, to a centre in Lincolnshire then Oxford and now Gatwick.
The Home Office has declined to comment on his case. But a spokeswoman said: “All asylum applications are carefully considered on their individual merits, in line with the UK immigration rules.”