NUS Scotland officer detained and set for deportation

Recently appointed NUS Scotland officer and master’s student at Strathclyde University Lord Elias Mensah Apetsi could be deported back to Ghana.

He has been detained by the Home Office because of a technical failure with a routine monthly asylum check-in.

12 days ago, after a ‘Leave to Remain’ application was submitted past the deadline, Lord Elias was separated from his two children and transported across the country to London, having been forcibly moved from facilities in Glasgow.

According to a post from the NUS Scotland President, he is set to be deported this Tuesday from Stansted Airport on a Titan Airways chartered flight.
Supported by the National Union of Students Scotland, Strathclyde students are campaigning for the release of the student representative and volunteer who was elected as NUS Scotland’s Executive Officer for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

Gary Paterson, President of the University of Strathclyde Students’ Association, said: “We are travelling down to London, and will be staying there for the coming days to protest the Home Office in Westminster, and seek to make representations and contact with our student who has been told will be forced to leave his home of 9 years and his children for an uncertain future in Ghana.”

Commenting on the case, Vonnie Sandlan, President of NUS Scotland, said: “This case reveals the shocking and degrading inadequacies of our asylum and immigration system, and is sadly far from an isolated example. Lord is just one of countless people who are let down every year by a system that should to protect them, but instead condemns them to inhumane treatment and an uncertain future.

“Everyone who speaks about Lord does so of a warm, caring and intelligent man, who has given so much to his university and community. In return he has expected nothing except a safe place to study in and call home. He has done huge amounts during his time in Glasgow, always for others, and we should welcome him in, not force him out, recognising he has much more to give.”

“I hope the UK Government halts Lord’s deportation, and provide him with the status and compassion he deserves, rather than the contempt and disregard he’s facing.”