I'll be dead in a week if I'm deported from Coventry

[okarol]

I'll be dead in a week if I'm deported from Coventry

Nov 19 2007

By Helen Thomas

A DIALYSIS patient is facing deportation from Coventry to his native India where he fears he will die within days through lack of proper treatment.

Baljit Singh Cheema, aged 24, of Winchester Street, Hillfields, says sending him home would effectively be a death sentence.

Mr Cheema, who receives dialysis at University Hospital, Walsgrave, three times a week, has been ordered by the Home Office to be deported.

"My biggest fear is if I am forced to go back I will die. I won't be able to get treatment and the doctors have told me I'll die without it," he said.

Mr Cheema arrived in Britain in January 2005 with a tourist visa but admits he did want to look for work to send money back to his family in India.

He had not suffered any health problems before he arrived.

"I arrived in the UK and went to the temple in London. I stayed there for two weeks and then came to Coventry.

I was dropped off by the taxi driver when I felt very dizzy, and collapsed," he said.

He spent six weeks in a coma before being diagnosed as being in the final stages of renal failure.

An application for asylum failed because India is not considered a dangerous country and the Home Office has deemed his case is not exceptional enough for him to be allowed to stay in the UK.

Heer Manak Solicitors, in Foleshill Road, who are working without charge on his behalf, have failed in their first attempt to get permission to appeal at the High Court and are going through a second attempt in the Court of Appeal.

Legal executive Saria Bashir said: "If he is forced back to India he will die within seven days.

"I don't think there could be a more exceptional case than his."

Mr Cheema is being looked after by friends and the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash, in Harnall Lane.

A spokesman for the Border and Immigration Agency said he could not comment on individual cases but added the Home Office examined each application with great care taking into account medical conditions and an assessment of treatment available in a person's home country.

http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_headline=i-ll-be-dead-in-a-week-if-i-m-deported-from-coventry&method=full&objectid=20128224&siteid=50003-name_page.html