LONDON (AFP) - A remarkable campaign of support is building in
Britain behind a 19-year-old footballer who is facing deportation
to his native Sierra Leone where he fears his life would be at
danger from a witchcraft cult.
Alhassan 'Al' Bangura has packed plenty into four years in his
adopted country, establishing a promising career with Watford, a
club near London who hope to return to the top-flight Premiership
next season, and becoming a father this month.
But Bangura is living on borrowed time, facing being sent back to
the west African country he fled when he was 15 because he feared
his father's links to a voodoo sect made him next in line for the
men with the machetes.
His appeal to stay in Britain was rejected last week and he must
now take his case to the Court of Appeal.
Refugees from Sierra Leone, which is still recovering from a brutal
civil war, are not automatically eligible for asylum in Britain so
each case must be individually proved.
While Bangura anxiously awaits the next legal moves, his plight has
gathered support far beyond a normal asylum case.
There were extraordinary scenes on Saturday when Watford hosted
Plymouth at the club's Vicarage Road stadium.
Fans of opposition teams tend to boo their hosts, but Bangura was
given a rapturous welcome from both sets of fans. When he was
handed the microphone to thank the crowd, he was so choked with
emotion he could hardly speak.
Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for him to be
allowed to stay in Britain and Watford's honorary life president,
rock superstar Elton John, has written to the government urging a
rethink.
"We have been extremely heartened by the support he's had from the
Watford fans but also from the wider footballing public," Scott
Field, the club's head of media, told AFP.
"We would be hugely disappointed as a club if Al loses the appeal,
but our main concern is for him because he has worked so hard and
he has done everything we expect from a young player."
Bangura says his late father was chief of a secret society, the
Soko, which practises witchcraft. His family were told that he was
expected to succeed his father and would be forced to undergo an
initiation ceremony involving mutilation.
Watford have stopped Bangura speaking to the media because of the
sensitivity of the case, but he told The Guardian newspaper what he
feared his fate would be if he was delivered back into the arms of
the cult.
"They're not good things that they are doing; they cut off bits of
their body," he said.
If he were forced to return home, "it would be like someone is just
taking my life away."
Bangura came to Britain after first making his way from Sierra
Leone to neighbouring Guinea, helped by a mysterious Frenchman he
knew only as "Pierre" whom Bangura thought wanted to help his
budding football career.
When he arrived in London, two men tried to rape him, and he said
he only realised then that he had fallen victim to a people
trafficker.
But he escaped their grasp and lived in a hostel while he applied
for asylum.
His fortunes changed when he was spotted playing amateur football
by a Watford talent scout. He made his first-team debut at the
tender age of 17 and went on to play 16 games in the Premiership
last season although he was unable to prevent Watford from being
relegated.
Currently injured, the midfielder is working hard to regain his
fitness and struggling with the demands of unexpected fatherhood
after his Sierra Leone-born girlfriend whom he met in London gave
birth this month to a son, Samal.
Meanwhile, his club, lawyers and politicians are working overtime
to keep Bangura in Britain.
Claire Ward, a lawmaker for the ruling Labour party who represents
Watford, arranged a meeting this week between Bangura's
representatives and an immigration minister.
She believes he has a good chance of winning an appeal.
"There are a number of factors in his favour such as the age he
came into the country and the constructive way he has used his time
here -- he has been a role model and has taken part in youth
projects and he has contributed to the British economy.
"He has a strong case."
