100 signatures reached
To: The Home Office
Grant Valerie Ekkwede Leave to Remain
Grant Ediage Valerie Ekkwede Leave to Remain
Why is this important?
The Home Office are threatening to deport Valerie Ekkwede to Cameroon - where he faces violence and persecution because of his sexuality.
Valerie is a well-valued member of his local community, having been a member of Coventry and Warwickshire Friends LGBTIQ group for the last four years. He has helped establish an ‘Out in the UK’ group in Coventry to support other LGBTIQ asylum seekers. He left Cameroon in 2011 after living in fear of attack and criminalisation, and says ‘I think I will get killed if I go back to Cameroon.’
A 2011 US state department human rights report found that homosexuals in Cameroon face "pervasive societal stigma, discrimination and harassment, as well as the possibility of imprisonment”, and in 2010 The Supreme Court heard that in Cameroon jail sentences for homosexuality ranged from six months to five years.
But last week Valerie recieved a letter from the Home Office telling him:
“You have no basis to continue to stay in the United Kingdom and you are expected to make arrangements to leave the United Kingdom without delay … if you do not leave the United Kingdom as required you will be liable to enforced removal to Cameroon.”
Sign this petition to call on the Home Office to urgently grant Valerie leave to remain in the UK.
