Don't Deport Me, I'm British


Don't Deport Me, I'm British

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This programme contains some strong language and some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

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Every year, thousands of children travel to Britain

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from poor countries, seeking new lives.

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The Government allows some to stay till they're 18,

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and grow up British.

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Everything in me is the British culture.

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But once they become adults,

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they face deportation back to where they were born.

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For six months, I followed three young men

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whose lives are in turmoil.

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Fucking dickhead. Shut your mouth.

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The Government has ordered them back to countries

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they've not been to for years...

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..in some cases, to dangerous and war-torn places.

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But some were sent to the UK by their families to earn a living.

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Others have broken the law in Britain.

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So the big question is,

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when is it fair for the Government to deport them?

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Come on, then, Bash, make a wish.

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My wish is to stay in this country.

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Live my life with my family,

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make my own future with my beautiful girlfriend.

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That's what is my big wish,

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that the Home Office can let me stay in the UK.

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That's what I've been waiting for nearly ten years,

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so, hopefully, my wish comes true.

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Put it on the bottom. Some more can go on the bottom there, can't they?

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I first met Bash last Christmas

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at his girlfriend Nicole's house, where he lives.

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He'd recently been arrested and sent to an immigration detention centre.

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Suddenly everything just changed with a click.

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-Literally.

-Yeah.

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It's just not fair,

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what they're putting families through.

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No-one should have to go through what Bash has been through...

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..over the past two months.

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This one, such a beautiful...

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We never, ever thought that there would be a time I'd get arrested

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and they'd hand me a ticket and say, "Go back to Afghanistan."

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Believe in a better life.

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Believe in a better future. A good future.

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The reason they tell me to go back to Afghanistan is

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Afghanistan is safe for me. How could it be safe for me?

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Going back after ten years and there is still a war going on?

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No-one wants to say something like,

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"This is the last time you could spend time with your boyfriend."

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HE SIGHS

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Come here.

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It's just painful.

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That's why I keep things inside my heart all the time.

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And I can't cope with it.

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Sometimes I feel it's just the end of everything.

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Everything.

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The Home Office is arguing that it's safe for him

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to return to Afghanistan.

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But Bash has terrible memories of what the Taliban did to his father

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when he was just nine.

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A group of people came to our house and explained that the Taliban

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wanted my father to work for them, but my father said no,

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because he was in the Afghani army.

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When I went outside to take some food for my dad,

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seeing him laying down there, shot dead.

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And I thought, "No, he's just sleeping."

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But in front of my eyes, seeing my father get shot.

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No, I cannot forget that.

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And when I picked him up and held him...

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..it's like...

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..he's smiling at me, but he's not talking.

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He's not saying anything.

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He's not...

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Bash says his mum sold the family land so she could pay traffickers

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to smuggle her only surviving child to safety in Britain.

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The Government places most unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into foster care.

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-Hello!

-Hello, Mum. OK?

-Yeah, how about you?

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-All right?

-I'm good, yeah.

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All right, lovely?

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Bash lived with his foster mum Dawn for close to seven years.

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Merry Christmas.

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May we see the pictures, Mam?

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Can you believe that? And look at this face in that one.

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It's crazy when you look at this picture.

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It's sad. Scared.

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Couldn't speak English.

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It doesn't seem like ten years ago.

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Do you remember when I came and you was laying down in the garden?

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I was in the bikini, and I said to him,

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I said, "This is my garden, Bash. This is what we do.

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"Women go out in their back gardens and they sunbathe."

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He says, "But you can't do that, you've got to dress," you know?

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I said, "No, the sun is out, I'm sunbathing."

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It was quite funny.

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The first five years, we thought we were going to get you a passport.

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But then, after five years, everything changed.

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And then a few months ago, just hit rock bottom.

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-Couldn't get any worse.

-No.

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-You all right?

-Yeah, just feeling a bit nervous.

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When people like Bash turn 17-and-a-half,

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the Home Office starts the process of removing them

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back to their home countries,

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unless they can prove why they should stay.

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Bash's lawyer is aiming to prove that he's become too Westernised

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to live safely in Afghanistan.

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An expert in Afghani culture

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is going to test Bash's native language skills.

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The thing is with me, I can't speak fluently.

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It doesn't matter whether you can speak fluently or not.

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The point is that you need to try.

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IN DARI:

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-ENGLISH: I will get it.

-I want to achieve this.

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That's how confident I am now with my case,

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because I have one of the best solicitors with me.

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Especially you, as Afghani expert.

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-All the best.

-Thank you.

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Back in Afghanistan, they would straightaway be questioned

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where they come from.

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If you're not able to speak Dari or Pashto, you cannot use Arabic words.

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A lot of time, you hear that somebody was kidnapped

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and his family was asked for this amount of money, a ransom.

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That could be one of the risks.

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In the last ten years,

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the Home Office has deported over 3,800 young people like Bash,

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who arrived in the UK as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

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Potential deportees are often held

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in one of 11 immigration detention centres.

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After weeks, months, sometimes years behind bars,

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they're placed on flights out of the country.

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Everyone is in cuffs on the coaches.

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Imagine how you feel - chains on your legs, chains on your arms,

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taken from your family,

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like, the only family you've known your whole life...

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..and just disappearing from that. How would you feel?

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People try to do their things to avoid their flights and all that.

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Try to jump off railings with ropes round their necks.

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That's how much people want to avoid coming back,

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because you're just destroying your whole life,

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especially the ones my age.

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In March, 22-year-old Francois and 31 other deportees

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were put onto this specially chartered flight.

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It was headed for where they were born - Jamaica.

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One week into his new life in the Jamaican countryside,

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and Francois is struggling to cope.

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This is far from home!

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Home is England. That's my home, London.

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That's where I grew up, innit?

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No-one who's gone there at a young age deserves to leave, regardless.

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Cos we're basically British, as much as they are.

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Francois moved to England when he was just seven.

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His aunt brought him over

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because he was abandoned by his parents in Jamaica.

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The Home Office allowed him to stay in the UK until he was 18.

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He lived mostly in Neasden, north-west London,

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with his auntie Karen.

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Aged 18, Francois became a dad.

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He stopped living with his son, but still looked after him regularly.

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Next week's my son's birthday and it's got me stressed that

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he's going to be four and I'm not going to be there

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to see him turn four.

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I've never missed none of his birthdays in my life...

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in HIS life.

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So he's going to turn four without me because of immigration.

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After 15 years away from Jamaica,

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Francois has had to move in with family he barely knows...

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What are you lot doing? Get out, man.

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INDISTINCT

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Hold that and get out, man.

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..including his mum, who left him when he was four.

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SHE CHUCKLES

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When he was 18,

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Francois was involved in a mass brawl with football fans in London.

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Although he was acquitted of violent disorder,

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the Home Office looked more closely at his record of behaviour.

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They decided not to extend his right to stay.

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This is...

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..like being in a murder case, you get all the evidence.

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The evidence to take me away from my family.

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I didn't know they could actually force you out with paperwork!

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The Home Office argued that Francois' four criminal convictions

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and frequent brushes with the law

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outweighed his right to stay as a parent.

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They're saying my history began as a juvenile,

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convicted for robbery in 2009,

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actual bodily harm in 2010...

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..and two thousand and... possession of A-class

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and assault on a constable in 2013.

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Tell me about those briefly.

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It's basically saying that all my offences was when I was a juvenile.

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But you did have cocaine on you?

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Yeah, I pled guilty to possession.

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But it weren't no large amount.

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I'm not Pablo Escobar!

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Francois has never served a jail sentence.

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He believes he was unfairly targeted by a special Home Office operation

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set up to increase deportations of dangerous foreign criminals.

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This meant his charge of violent disorder

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could be used as part of the case to remove him.

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Violent disorder was dismissed against me.

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How does that make you a criminal?

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Francois believes that some of the traces of him on police records

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were unfairly used to argue the case for his removal.

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"Mr Summers was stopped by police 32 times in a three-year period

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"in his local area."

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In their language, you get stopped 32 times for being black

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and wearing a tracksuit. Come on, Neasden.

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You're from Neasden and you're black, you're wearing a tracksuit,

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you're going to jail. Or you're getting stopped 32 times.

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Probably even more.

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For Francois, the only hope of returning to the UK legally

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is an out-of-country appeal.

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There is huge pressure on the Government

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to deport foreign nationals who commit serious crimes in Britain.

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To speed up the process,

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they've adopted and broadened a policy

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known as "deport first, appeal later".

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After three hours, Francois gives up on filling in the appeal form.

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I was living in the Seaford area, south of England.

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It's a very nice and warm place, probably the hottest in the UK.

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Nice food. Fish and chips.

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I was living with Malcolm and Nicola, my foster parents.

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They were like actual parents to me. They looked after me really well.

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In north-east Bangladesh, I meet 20-year-old Bok.

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He lived in the south of England for seven years until the Home Office

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deported him to the country of his birth in 2015.

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Everything about coming to Bangladesh was foreign to me

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because of the barriers to the culture, after so many years away

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from the culture and it's moved on so much.

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Bok is still adjusting to life

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in a remote and rural corner of Bangladesh.

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This is my uncle's house.

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The front and right at the back is my house,

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where you will go and see.

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Two of my uncles, their children, their wife and behind,

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I live with my mother, my sister and brother.

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So...

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This is my mother.

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He's the brother, he's 11 now.

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I was like him when I went to the UK, the same age as him.

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So you can imagine growing up over there from this sort of age

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and coming back to this age and how you'd react.

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I've got... Everything in me is British culture

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and now coming back is really tough.

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Such a shock.

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Hi, Rob.

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How you doing?

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Not bad. First thing I'd ask, how did you score 150?

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All true. I just can't believe it. Was it under-14s bowling?

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He is my closest friend in England

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and I've known him the longest and he knows me the longest, probably.

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Rob taught Bok when he was at school in Eastbourne

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and later brought him onto his cricket team.

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Bok should be someone who is held up as,

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"Immigration is great. This is what it could be."

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You've got someone who has come over to this country,

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has gone through our education system and done amazing GCSEs,

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had gone to college, was just about to finish his second year of college

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and was applying to go to university,

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was playing cricket, was coaching cricket,

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was helping youngsters, was a massive part.

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He couldn't have been more of a part of the furniture than what he was.

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When Bok was 11,

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he says his father sent him to Britain because Bok was at risk of

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kidnap by his father's enemies.

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Because of these threats,

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Bok says his father paid traffickers to smuggle him to safety in

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Eastbourne on the south coast of England.

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But as Bok told me more of his story,

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parts of it didn't seem to add up.

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He says the traffickers abandoned him on a park bench.

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He then claims he started knocking on random doors.

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Bok was taken in,

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but he claims this apparent stranger had no connection to his traffickers

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or to his family in Bangladesh.

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Yes.

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I don't know.

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They probably felt for me or... I was basically helping them out

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or they felt I was helping their family.

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Bok says he later ran into difficulties with the stranger,

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who called social services.

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Aged 13, Bok was placed into foster care and allowed to stay in the UK.

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This is my foster family, the family picture together.

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That's why I'm watching it.

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I lived with them for nearly six years.

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This is the old man.

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I really miss them. They genuinely felt like a family cos, well,

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that's how I have always felt about them.

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Wow, they got new sofas!

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When Bok turned 18,

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the Home Office concluded that he could rebuild a family life in

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Bangladesh and that there was no evidence it was unsafe

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for him to go back.

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He was just days away from finishing his A-levels.

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It was also taken away at a point

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when I was just stepping into the full life.

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That's when I was about to step into a life

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that I could really look forward to.

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That was taken away at a serious time.

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Bash has succeeded in getting thousands of people

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to sign a petition against his deportation to Afghanistan.

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I'm really excited.

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I can't wait to just hand this box to the Home Office

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and say, "This is all the public that has been supporting me."

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This is like going to the top, top office of the Home Office

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and delivering this message to them.

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We're not alone. Our MP's with us.

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It didn't even cross our mind at first that an MP could help us,

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you know? We didn't realise what an impact it would have

0:28:350:28:39

on a case like this.

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Bash has got the support of his local MP.

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She hopes the Government will have to allow more people

0:29:060:29:09

like Bash to stay if he wins the appeal against his deportation.

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We're focusing on your case today, but I'm hoping, obviously,

0:29:150:29:20

that we win the case, then we can start to help other children

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who have been in your situation as well.

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That's why it's so important that you win this case,

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cos it will set a precedent, then, for other people.

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When they hit 18,

0:29:360:29:38

they have to apply to stay here and some of them can't stay and I think

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that has wider implications about what an inhumane and perverse policy

0:29:420:29:46

it is to do that to unaccompanied child refugees.

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So we're going to go in now, I think. Thank you.

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14,000 people stood next to you,

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you just want to go keep doing it and just go there

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and fight through it. You just don't want to give up.

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-Come on, then, Bash.

-Onwards and upwards.

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The Government argues it's safe for many deportees

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to return to Afghanistan.

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It also says that deporting people like Bash discourages

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other unaccompanied children and illegal migrants

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from making dangerous journeys to Britain.

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Because of immigration problems,

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Bash has missed months of his education.

0:30:460:30:48

Today, he's finally back in college.

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If I had a ticket for Afghanistan, free, would you go for it?

0:30:520:30:56

There's no way I would go to Afghanistan in any measures.

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-No.

-You couldn't pay me £1 million to go to Afghanistan.

0:31:010:31:04

That's how I felt.

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I said to them, "I don't want to go."

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You have the right to stay in this country as much as me

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and anyone else at this table

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cos you've been here since you were nine.

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You've never been arrested, you've abided to the law and stuff, so...

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what makes you any less British than any of us?

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They say at a certain age, "Go back, Afghanistan is safe for you."

0:31:210:31:26

It's not safe for anyone in Afghanistan,

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even the people who live there,

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and you don't know anyone over there,

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so you're just going to get shipped to a country where you don't know

0:31:320:31:35

the language, you don't know anybody.

0:31:350:31:37

-And you just get shot.

-Yeah, you could get shot or something, like,

0:31:370:31:40

it's not a safe country to be in when you're perfectly fine here,

0:31:400:31:43

doing nothing wrong.

0:31:430:31:45

So I don't understand the big problem.

0:31:450:31:47

They could be sending you to your death, do you know what I mean?

0:31:470:31:49

-Yeah.

-That's like a life sentence.

0:31:490:31:51

It's like an everyday thing for them.

0:31:510:31:53

-To have no idea where your mum is or anything.

-No.

0:31:530:31:55

I haven't seen my mum since I left Afghanistan.

0:31:550:31:58

Bash says his dangerous journey to Britain over land and sea

0:32:060:32:10

took close to a year.

0:32:100:32:12

He says he passed through the hands of dozens of traffickers.

0:32:120:32:15

Before Bash turned ten,

0:32:170:32:20

he would have seen his dad killed in front of him.

0:32:200:32:25

He would have seen mothers and their babies

0:32:260:32:30

trying to come from one country to another and not make it.

0:32:300:32:35

I just want to take the pain away from him

0:32:390:32:42

and him not have to go through anything else,

0:32:420:32:46

but it's the uncertainty...

0:32:460:32:47

..of it might...

0:32:490:32:50

..it might happen again.

0:32:520:32:53

It's ten days since Francois was sent back to Jamaica.

0:33:310:33:34

And he's more desperate than ever to return to his old life in Britain.

0:33:370:33:41

I never like down here. People stare too much.

0:33:430:33:46

I hate people staring.

0:33:480:33:49

I do stand out. The way I dress, the way I speak, everything.

0:33:510:33:56

-Pardon?

-Does it make you feel paranoid?

0:34:020:34:04

Yeah, it does make me feel paranoid.

0:34:040:34:06

Shut your mouth, man.

0:34:130:34:14

MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

0:34:150:34:17

Fucking dickhead. Shut your mouth, man.

0:34:190:34:21

Shut your fucking mouth, bruv.

0:34:250:34:27

That's why I don't like this country, man.

0:34:350:34:38

Despite his tough upbringing on the streets of London,

0:34:500:34:53

Jamaica is a far more dangerous place for Francois to survive.

0:34:530:34:57

The murder rate here is almost 45 times higher than in Britain.

0:34:590:35:03

Francois has lost relatives to this violence.

0:35:070:35:10

Francois heads to a homeless shelter

0:36:210:36:23

to meet another recent deportee from London.

0:36:230:36:27

Basically, there's two sides.

0:36:270:36:29

This side is for British...

0:36:290:36:32

Deportees are targets for crime in Jamaica,

0:36:320:36:35

because they've come from rich countries.

0:36:350:36:37

This is my little home for now, until I get out of here.

0:36:380:36:45

Don't see it happening around here.

0:36:450:36:47

Round here, it ain't nice.

0:36:470:36:49

There's, I think, about now, there's some curfew,

0:36:490:36:53

meaning at a certain time, you can't come out,

0:36:530:36:56

so, basically, there's wars in the area

0:36:560:36:59

just going on and the police give curfews.

0:36:590:37:01

Imagine how much of a target we are.

0:37:390:37:41

I know, I hear it all the time.

0:37:410:37:43

It was supposed to be something to do with us,

0:37:440:37:47

cos there's a guy that came back before

0:37:470:37:49

and he was, like, they stabbed him and was asking,

0:37:490:37:53

"Who are the deportees? What's down there? Da-da-da-da..."

0:37:530:37:57

cos they know that the reason the plane came in,

0:37:570:38:00

whenever the plane comes in, they know there's deportees, most likely.

0:38:000:38:04

So, basically, this is meant for us, G.

0:38:050:38:08

It wasn't to do with him, it was the deportees.

0:38:080:38:11

They think we've got a bag of money coming down.

0:38:110:38:14

Back in Bangladesh,

0:38:250:38:27

I wanted to find out the truth about why Bok was sent to the UK

0:38:270:38:30

as a young boy.

0:38:300:38:32

He has suggested that he needed safe asylum,

0:38:340:38:37

but I'm wondering if he may have been sent as an economic migrant.

0:38:370:38:40

Since being deported back to Bangladesh,

0:39:030:39:05

Bok has struggled to find work in a country rife with poverty.

0:39:050:39:09

Men from here are regularly sent to the UK

0:39:110:39:14

to provide for family members back home.

0:39:140:39:17

In Britain, the Government faces particular pressure

0:39:410:39:44

to reduce the number of economic migrants.

0:39:440:39:46

The Home Office did not think Bok's evidence that he was in danger

0:39:480:39:52

in Bangladesh was compelling.

0:39:520:39:54

I'm dubious about his story that he was sent to Britain

0:39:580:40:01

to escape threats from his father's enemies...

0:40:010:40:03

..so I try to find out more about his dad.

0:40:050:40:08

That's my dad, but I don't remember seeing him like that.

0:40:130:40:17

I just remember him with a beard. So that's a very, very old photo.

0:40:170:40:22

I think about him. I just like to...whatever.

0:40:250:40:29

I have memory of him, I like to keep it to myself,

0:40:290:40:31

I don't like sharing his memory.

0:40:310:40:33

Not for me.

0:40:480:40:49

I don't remember. I just erase it from my memory and refresh it, so...

0:40:500:40:57

I'm OK with it.

0:40:570:40:59

Bok is clearly reluctant to talk about his dad,

0:41:010:41:05

so I ask his mum about his claim that he was sent to Britain

0:41:050:41:08

because of serious threats.

0:41:080:41:10

I want to get to the bottom of why Bok was sent to Britain.

0:41:310:41:34

He says he was taken in by a total stranger

0:41:340:41:37

when he arrived in Eastbourne,

0:41:370:41:40

but I'm beginning to suspect he was sent to live with a relative

0:41:400:41:43

to earn money for the family back in Bangladesh.

0:41:430:41:46

I do not have any relatives that I know of in the UK.

0:41:550:41:57

I am very much sure.

0:41:590:42:00

I ask Rob, Bok's closest friend in Britain,

0:42:120:42:15

who Bok stayed with when he arrived in Eastbourne.

0:42:150:42:18

As far as I'm aware, he was meant to be staying with his brother.

0:42:210:42:25

The communication was fairly basic that we could have...

0:42:250:42:28

..and he didn't really...

0:42:300:42:31

I didn't feel he wanted to massively talk about it,

0:42:310:42:33

so I didn't really want to push him on it any further.

0:42:330:42:36

In front of you, you have a piece of paper which is the electoral roll

0:42:370:42:41

that shows that you did actually have a family member in the UK

0:42:410:42:45

and that you were staying at the address where they were registered.

0:42:450:42:49

Well, now, obviously from what I found out, I do have,

0:42:490:42:53

but I wasn't aware back then, was I?

0:42:530:42:55

So I didn't see him and I'm not connected to him or nothing anyway.

0:42:550:42:59

I just don't...I just don't know.

0:42:590:43:01

I haven't spoke to him for a long time.

0:43:010:43:03

Did you go to England to live with this relative?

0:43:050:43:07

No, I certainly didn't go to England to live with this relative.

0:43:080:43:12

I did not.

0:43:120:43:13

I never find out why Bok denies living with a relative.

0:43:200:43:23

And it's unclear why he lost contact with them

0:43:260:43:29

and ended up in foster care.

0:43:290:43:31

It does seem a little bit strange that you come over here to meet a

0:43:330:43:36

relative and then you don't end up living with that relative.

0:43:360:43:39

Bok obviously got trafficked to this country

0:43:420:43:44

and then dumped and left to fend for himself,

0:43:440:43:47

to look after himself in a country where he didn't speak

0:43:470:43:51

the language and didn't know anyone.

0:43:510:43:53

Bok was given no choice about being trafficked out of Bangladesh

0:43:550:43:58

when he was just 11.

0:43:580:44:00

The painful reality, that his family send him as an economic migrant,

0:44:040:44:09

is hard for Bok to accept.

0:44:090:44:11

It was very, very important for me to believe

0:44:230:44:25

that my life was in danger, for me to go away, because,

0:44:250:44:28

otherwise, I don't see, personally, the age I was, why would I go there?

0:44:280:44:32

Why someone would want to have their child go away from them?

0:44:320:44:37

Why would they?

0:44:370:44:39

Against the odds, the young Bok built himself a life in Britain.

0:44:420:44:46

One that he'll probably never get back.

0:44:490:44:51

He wanted to take his education further and he wanted to...

0:44:530:44:57

This was his home. He called this home.

0:44:570:44:59

This is where he wanted to be, he wanted to live here,

0:44:590:45:02

he wanted to work, he wanted to be part of society,

0:45:020:45:05

so it literally just got ripped from underneath him, basically.

0:45:050:45:08

The truth is, I'm really deeply hurt and scared

0:45:130:45:16

and I don't know how to pull myself back together. I just...

0:45:160:45:19

..don't know.

0:45:210:45:22

In Cardiff, Bash has just received some huge news

0:45:360:45:40

from his lawyer, Vinita, about whether he can stay in Britain.

0:45:400:45:44

I sat down, I rang Vinita and I said,

0:45:450:45:48

"Hello," and she said,

0:45:480:45:50

"I'm sorry, Bash, your case has been refused.

0:45:500:45:53

"And...

0:45:550:45:56

"..I don't have anything to say."

0:45:570:45:59

She said, "I'm sorry. I tried my best," and everything.

0:46:000:46:03

Hi, can I book an appointment for an emergency, please?

0:46:060:46:09

I just had bad news about my case, so I just need to see my doctor.

0:46:110:46:16

Yeah, I have depression. I need my depression tablets as well.

0:46:160:46:20

Yeah, I can book an appointment. The doctor will ring me back.

0:46:280:46:32

You need to see this counsellor.

0:46:340:46:37

Ideally, you want to see her tomorrow.

0:46:370:46:39

-Mental health should be a priority in itself.

-Yeah, definitely.

0:46:410:46:44

Had enough of this life.

0:46:500:46:51

I've had enough of this kind of situation.

0:46:510:46:53

Really had enough.

0:46:560:46:57

It's hurting each and every one of us.

0:47:000:47:02

I don't know how much heart...

0:47:030:47:05

..heartache we can take.

0:47:060:47:07

The only thing I was planning, it's in my mind to run away.

0:47:090:47:13

Because he knows now what to expect if he's arrested and detained...

0:47:160:47:21

..he's scared of going through that again.

0:47:230:47:25

So, what exactly are the Home Office saying in terms of why they've

0:47:340:47:39

refused for a case, Bash?

0:47:390:47:43

They're not accepting that he's not Westernised.

0:47:430:47:45

They're not accepting that he has a home life here.

0:47:470:47:52

People facing deportation, like Bash...

0:48:160:48:19

..have to sign in every few weeks with the Home Office.

0:48:210:48:24

Last October, Bash was detained after one of these sign-ins.

0:48:250:48:29

Today is his first sign-in since he lost his appeal.

0:48:310:48:34

There's a serious risk Bash could be detained again.

0:48:400:48:44

This is obviously the first sign-in since they made that decision,

0:48:440:48:49

since you have that decision, so it's just...

0:48:490:48:52

just nerve-racking, you know?

0:48:520:48:54

I'm terrified he won't come out.

0:49:030:49:04

I don't think I could cope through it again.

0:49:070:49:11

It's like having your heart ripped out of your chest and stamped on

0:49:110:49:15

by people who don't know us.

0:49:150:49:16

He's usually in...in and out within sort of five minutes,

0:49:340:49:38

but there seems to be a lot more people going in as well,

0:49:380:49:42

so whether that's got anything to do with it, I don't know. Not sure.

0:49:420:49:46

Francois is still desperate to get back to his son in London.

0:50:320:50:35

He says he's determined not to repeat

0:50:370:50:40

the mistakes his parents made.

0:50:400:50:41

I still feel it badly.

0:50:430:50:46

I always looked at myself like I was different from my friends...

0:50:460:50:49

..cos they all had their mums, dad, like...

0:50:510:50:57

They all had their little family, innit?

0:50:570:50:59

I never had that. For me, that was missing,

0:50:590:51:02

so there was always a rage.

0:51:020:51:04

As I got older, that kind of started to trigger off,

0:51:060:51:11

like the first time I got arrested.

0:51:110:51:14

It started just triggering off, like...

0:51:140:51:16

Today is the deadline for Francois to submit his appeal,

0:51:220:51:26

his only chance of a legal route back to Britain,

0:51:260:51:30

but he's struggling without the guidance of a lawyer.

0:51:300:51:33

His mum and gran are offering what help they can.

0:51:370:51:40

Unable to afford a lawyer or the fee for the appeal,

0:52:440:52:48

Francois says he won't be able to submit it on time.

0:52:480:52:51

It's worth pursuing, but I don't believe it will work,

0:53:020:53:05

if I'm being honest, in my point of view...

0:53:050:53:07

..cos it's logical that it won't work,

0:53:080:53:11

but I'm still going to pursue it to prove it don't work!

0:53:110:53:14

If the system don't work,

0:53:200:53:22

then you've got to find ways around the system...

0:53:220:53:24

..cos remember...

0:53:260:53:28

..forget what the system says, innit?

0:53:300:53:32

Can't let the system make a decision on your son's life.

0:53:320:53:34

Being honest.

0:53:410:53:42

What's going to happen? I'm going to get back to my son however I can.

0:53:450:53:48

That's what's going to happen.

0:53:480:53:50

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