Local resident Reza Yosefi has been released from detention after a second reprieve from deportation.
Reza came to Sheffield at the age of 16, alone. His family fled Afghanistan before he was born, and were refugees in Iran. The UK Border Agency are now trying to deport Reza to Afghanistan, where he has never lived and where he knows no one.
Now aged 20, Reza has been detained twice since November ready for deportation, and twice received a last minute reprieve. Campaigners say Reza should be allowed to remain in Sheffield as it not safe for him in Afghanistan. The UK Border Agency are now reconsidering his claim for asylum.
A poem written by Reza whilst in Colnbrook detention centre:
I am going to nowhere land
They're deporting me from England
I was looking for my home land…
What a destiny that I am banned
I wanna go back to my home town
Sheffield is my home land
They say Afghanistan is your land
UKBA took me to Colnbrook
They're sending me to nowhere land.
Reza Yosefi, March 2011