Pakistani national returns home

Rashid was deported by the UK immigration authorities after spending 45 months in detention without being charged.

LONDON: A Pakistani national has returned home after spending 45 months in detention in the UK without being charged. Asif Rashid, who suffered from severe mental illness, was deported by the UK immigration authorities after the London High Court overturned his appeal.

Rashid was earlier due to be sent back to Islamabad on May 10, but won an eleventh hour reprieve when he won a temporary injunction against the home secretary’s decision. At that time, he had been in detention for 43 months without any charge being levelled against him.

According to facts provided by his lawyer, Amjad Malik, Rashid came to the UK to visit his step-sister in Rochdale in north-west England in 2001 and claimed asylum after which he was given temporary admission in the United Kingdom. On December 3 2001 his asylum application was refused and on December 28 he lodged an appeal, which was dismissed on June 25 2003.

He made various applications between November 22 2004, all of which were refused by December 7 2004. On or about 2006 he was convicted of urinating on the bank of a canal whilst suffering a mental illness and was sentenced to 84 days. He was detained whilst reporting at local reporting centre on October 19 2006. He was also examined by a forensic psychiatrist in the detention centre who stated in his report that “Mr Rashid would require an intensive level of supervision if removed to Pakistan, and would not be able to cope independently.” Rashid returned home earlier this month without justice and compensation for the unlawful detention beyond the given time frame. His lawyer also claimed that his relatives had to grease the palm of immigration officials to secure his release from the FIA detention.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2010.