On Tuesday evening, 16th May, Immigration tried to deport Joao Paulo Cassongo back to Angola, the place he escaped from torture and persecution.

This ought not to have happened because there is a solicitor who is working on his case and the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture were trying to make an appointment to see him. Joao Cassongo has visible wounds from torture all over his body and suffers from post-traumatic stress as a result of living in a war zone for most of his life and being persecuted by all sides in the conflict in Moxico Povince, Angola. He has no family left there and Angola is not a safe place. ‘The war is officially over but there is still severe political instability in Angola as a consequence of social degradation and a lack of a free and democratic environment. There is a high level of lawlessness that facilitates the climate for the operation of politically motivated repression and persecution with impunity.’ (Quote from an Angolan woman living in the UK)

Since arriving in the UK, Joao Cassongo has been subjected to almost incredible lapses in procedure. His case has been ruined by what his counsel described, on the official record, as "incompetent" preparation. At Mr Cassongo's appeal in June 2002, his barrister, a Miss Holmes, was so appalled at the way his case had been prepared she sought guidance and "the Bar Council advised me to withdraw from the case". She continued to represent Mr Cassongo only under pressure to do so, as her client would otherwise be entirely undefended, and after obtaining professional indemnity against an adverse outcome. Joao Cassongo's "failure" at this appeal was then used as grounds for dismissing his appeal to the Tribunal, and it is now being used as grounds for removing him from the country. One early medical report was offensive and racist, stating that Joao was a country lad bewildered by the big city and strange culture, rather than someone who had been tortured.

Joao cannot understand why he has not been believed since arriving in the UK. He says that only those who have lived through a war can understand the horror and the desperation to find a safe place to live. He has not had a chance to enjoy a normal, peaceful life in the UK because the system of ‘processing’ people seeking refuge here extends the torture they have already endured in their own countries. Immigration detention centres are prisons and the regimes inside them are like mental torture.

Joao was not deported last night but he took a severe beating from the Global Solutions ‘escorts’, three of them against one fragile, handcuffed man. They beat him with no mercy in the van when he resisted being handcuffed and having his legs bandaged. He asked to see his passport. Apparently they did not have a proper travel document, just a piece of paper with his photo on it. Without a passport he would be subjected to the same treatment by Immigration in Angola as here. The escorts handcuffed him and dragged him on to the plane. They forced him to sit down, put a hand on his face almost breaking his nose. He kept crying out: I'm not a criminal, I'm not a terrorist, where are my human rights, my life is in danger. After he struggled for about a quarter of an hour the pilot had enough and ordered the escorts to leave with him.

We visited him last night. He is bruised and has a painful arm, the bridge of his nose is swollen and there are pressure lines from where the escort pressed on his face but Joao is still in the UK and his friends and supporters intend to fight for his right to remain here.