Bruce Mpofu moved to Bradford at aged 9 and has lived in the UK his whole life, moving to Yorkshire as a child with his mum – who works for the NHS.
He knows no one in Zimbabwe, the country he has just been deported to, and was given just £40 to start a new life with after Home Office officials made the decision to deport him for a crime he had committed years before.
Now aged 29, Bruce was deported for a crime he committed in 2010 – and which he has already served 11 months in jail for. He has not reoffended since.
However, when attending a routine immigration meeting in July, he found he was being detained.
Now, following a series of legal battles, he has been deported with just £40 in his pocket – having been put on a charter flight from Heathrow airport and flown to Harare, Zimbabwe following the decisino by Home Office officials.
A Go Fund Me has been set up to try and reverse the deportation and to help Bruce survive in Zimbabwe, where it is feared he will become homeless.
The appeal reads: “Whilst he made a mistake as a minor, he has nothing but been an upstanding citizen since and the decision from the Home Office seems cruel and unjust.
“Bruce was deported to Zimbabwe at 10pm on 25th August.
“Bruce has landed in Harare and the UK government have given him a huge sum of £40 to help him start his new life. This is why there are people who have been deported from the UK now sleeping rough in Zimbabwe.
“We are now desperately trying to raise funds to help prevent Bruce from being homeless. It will also help him with things that we take for granted such as food and clothing.”
At the time of writing, the Go Fund Me appeal for Bruce has raised over £5,000.
Before this summer. no mass deportation flights had left for Zimbabwe in over a decade.
However, according to reports in Bradford’s The Telegraph and Argus, it is said that the UK has “agreed a deal with the country’s new government which enables removals of Zimbabwean nationals who have served prison sentences in the UK of more than 12 months.”
When the paper approached the Home Office for comment, they said:
“Foreign criminals who abuse our hospitality should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. Since January 2019 we have removed 7,985 foreign national offenders from the UK.
“We only ever return those who we and, where applicable, the courts are satisfied do not need our protection and have no legal basis to remain in the UK.
“All people in IRCs are provided with a mobile phone and have access to landline telephones on request, fax machines, email, and video calling facilities which can be used to contact legal representatives. We check the signal regularly and no issues have been recorded.”
Feature image – Go Fund Me.
