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Man stranded in Turkey denied entry to UK
STORY: “It felt like my whole world had ended at the time.” Stranded in Turkey, Siyabonga Twala reflects on being refused entry to the UK over two months ago. On Saturday (March 11) he spent his 34th birthday far away from his family in a strange city. Twala has South African citizenship but has lived in the UK since 2004 and is the father of a British son. On December 29, after a trip to South Africa, he flew back to the UK with his parents, son and two siblings. But Twala was prevented from boarding the plane in Istanbul. “They just pulled me aside and said we were informed we couldn’t climb you today and they gave me a letter with an email and phone number on it, all they could tell me at the time.” He did did not see the deportation order but says it was a conviction for possession of cannabis with intent to supply. In 2018 he was sentenced to nine months in prison, which he has served for four and a half months. “I just felt like I might just have another one committed a crime or anything like that and I’d be sentenced to another prison sentence on top of what I’ve already served.” Twala , who has a UK resident permit, appealed a document saying he was responsible for the deportation. His appeal was unsuccessful, but he continues to fight against the deportation decision by the Interior Ministry. (Rishi Sunak, b (Prime Minister) “If they come here illegally, it will result in their detention and swift deportation.” This comes at a time when the UK government’s immigration policy is under scrutiny around the world with new plans to allow asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the English Channel come into the country to refuse entry. Lawyers and charities said the plans would violate the United Nations Refugee Convention. Twala’s representative was told by the Home Office that he had left the country voluntarily. The UK Home Office did not respond to a Reuters query on Saturday. Twala even tried to go to the British Embassy in Ankara but was turned away. “I got to the (British) embassy and apparently before I could even see anyone, security at the gate said to me: ‘We won’t let you because your appointment is invalid and you are not a British citizen.’ But I tried obviously telling them, ‘Look, I essentially have a visa, and that visa is a British visa, it’s an ongoing visa.’ He stays in a foreign country, away from his family. He says Britain is his home and has “nowhere to go” if he is not allowed to return.
