Failed Berry Brow asylum seeker jailed in the UK for trying to LEAVE the country
Jul 31 2010 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Rahman Nazary
A FAILED asylum seeker who was jailed and then tagged for trying to LEAVE the country has gone on hunger strike.
Iranian Rahman Nazary, known as ‘Ash’, was ordered out of Britain after having his asylum claim rejected in November, 2007.
But he was hauled back to the UK and locked up for six months last year after flying to Switzerland on a false Belgian passport.
He then had a security tag attached to his leg in June last year which confines him to his home at Holme Park Court in Berry Brow every morning and evening.
Mr Nazary, 23, a born again Christian, is still waiting for a decision on a fresh asylum claim he submitted in April.
He cannot work and is currently surviving using a £35-a-week shopping voucher given to him by the Government.
He says the tag – fitted because he was supposedly a ‘threat to the public’ – has left him a prisoner.
His doctor, charity support worker, asylum support case worker and church pastor have all sent letters to the Home Office pleading for the tag to be removed and for his asylum case to be resolved.
After being psychiatrically assessed to ensure he had his full mental faculties, Mr Nazary went on hunger strike yesterday in protest at being tagged and the delay in his asylum decision.
“I’m not eating because I want justice to be done,” he said.
“If I die, I will die with honour. God made me free and I deserve that freedom.”
Mr Nazary came to the UK in the back of a lorry in September, 2005, after fearing for his life because of a relationship he had in Iran.
His original asylum application was refused in November of that year and he had several subsequent appeals rejected.
He flew to Switzerland in December, 2008, but was returned to the UK and jailed for 12 months for possessing false documents.
He was released after serving half the sentence in June, but fitted with the tag.
Mr Nazary said he was not told how long the tag would be fitted.
After becoming a Christian in 2007, he has applied to remain in the UK on the grounds of persecution if he returned to Iran.
“I feel like it could be heaven for me here, but they have made it hell,” he said.
“I see people who have a good life and enjoy their freedom, but because I’m an asylum seeker I’m not a part of society.”
It is the second time Mr Nazary has been on hunger strike. In 2007 he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after refusing food.
Mr Nazary’s GP Jo Miller, of the Whitehouse practice in Huddersfield, wrote to the Home Office last month saying his situation was a drain on the NHS.
