Activists condemn ‘Asylum Seeker’ playwright’s deportation

Summary of story from The Guardian, January 17, 2012

Activists and writers have condemnded the recent UK Border Agency decision to deport Cameroonian playwright Lydia Besong and her husband from the UK.

Prominent authors and human rights figures such as Monica Ali and Michael Morpurgo have written to Home Secretary Theresa May to protest the agency’s decision.

Besong says she was persecuted in Cameroon for her critical stance on the government, then raped in jail by a guard.

She is due to be deported Saturday.

She has written three plays since she arrived in the UK in 2006.

One of them,”How I Became an Asylum Seeker”,  was produced by the organisation Women for Refugee Women and shown in London, Manchester and Liverpool.

Mr Morpurgo said the risk Ms Besong will be abused and imprisoned again “seems undeniable”.

“That she is extraordinarily brave in her stand against oppression is clear,” Mr Morpurgo said. “And that her talents would be of great value to us as a citizen in our society would seem to be obvious.”

A petition to stop Ms Besong and her husband’s deportation can be found here.