boxing champion to be deported after fighting 6 times for england

London’s current middleweight boxing champion, Kelvin Fawaz, came to England, from Nigeria, as 15 years ago where he was forced into domestic slavery. Despite this, Fawaz has grown up to be a talented athlete who Team Great Britain fought to have represented their country at the Olympic Games in both 2012 and 2016. But because of his early childhood immigration to England, the Nigerian government had repeatedly declined to issue him a passport, as he holds no other, and consider him to be “stateless”. Similarly, the Home Office in England has repeatedly rejected the case he’s been building for more than a decade and continues to refuse Fawaz a work visa.

Fawaz’s ongoing fight with the Home Office has left Fawaz with few options to make money using his natural talents or to represent the country he calls home on the international stage. Until recently, Fawaz had been performing janitorial work in exchange for accommodations and food at his local gym. That was until eight plainclothes policemen and two uniformed officers arrested him while he trained at the same gym, last week.

“Fawaz had failed to report to the immigration reporting centre three times in recent months because he is suffering from depression, for which he is receiving treatment. Instead of visiting him at his registered address or contacting his nominated lawyers, however, the Home Office decided to detain him and begin the process of deporting him,” The Guardian reports.

“We had no idea the Home Office were looking to detain him,” said Fawaz’s lawyer, Aisha Noor from KQ Solicitors. “I fail to understand why they arrested him rather than simply phoning us. We have a letter from his doctor explaining his mental health problems and how ill he was. He was never at risk of absconding.”

This past August, the Home Office rejected Fawaz application to be considered stateless.