Al Bangura Gets to Stay in Britain
By: Laurie | January 14th, 2008
We reported here previously on the plight of Watford midfielder Al Bangura. You may remember that in November he was ordered deported from Britain. He appealed this order based on fears for his life if he were foced back to Sierra Leone.
Bangura fled Sierra Leone as a 15-year-old in fear of his life and after being discovered playing locally in Watford, he joined the club as a 17-year-old trainee in 2005 and has since made more than 60 appearances for the club.
After the Home Office served the deportation order several thousand fans of the Championship (second division) side signed a petition in protest, demanding that the government allow him to stay.
Fortunately for Bangura and Watford fans, he won the appeal and will be allowed to remain in the country.
From the Watford website:
Al Bangura has won his fight to remain in the United Kingdom, after a government work permit hearing found in his favor earlier today (Monday.)
Awarding him a work permit, pending the completion of standard paperwork, the six-strong comittee decided Al’s footballing credentials warranted extended stay in this country.
We could spend all day debating this case, and immigration in general, and whether or not he got special treatment because he’s in a footballer. But for now all I really have to say is this:
I think they made the right choice.
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Comments
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Well done. Pity it took so long to get it sorted out.
Posted from
France
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Thank goodness for that. Congrats to his club’s administration to to their fans for supporting him! And thanks Laurie for following up on this story.
Posted from
United States -
that’s excellent. its wonderful seeing fans + admins rally around something like this. thanks for the follow-up.
Posted from
United States -
Great, great news. I don’t know much about the larger questions of immigration in Britain, but this seems like a victory for fairness and compassion no matter which way you look at it. Even if it did take football supporters to point that out to the government.
Posted from
United States
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