Watford boss Aidy fuming over Bangura ruling

An asylum and immigration tribunal yesterday refused him permission to stay in Britain and all that stands between the 19-year-old midfielder and an uncertain future is a High Court appeal in the new year.

Bangura has found sanctuary at Watford since escaping his homeland in desperation and manager Aidy Boothroyd yesterday condemned the decision.

Scroll down for more

A shocked Boothroyd said: "After the immigration hearing I said that I had faith in British justice but obviously I was totally mistaken because it's a completely ludicrous decision.

"This country, great as it once was, seems to allow anybody in to send benefits wherever they fancy and we have one young man here who pays his taxes, has a fiancee and a newborn son and somebody somewhere thinks it's a good decision to send him back to Sierra Leone. It's ridiculous.

"We've been sent a document with the reasons why he's being deported and they are ridiculous.

"We are appealing and I only hope that rather than these pen-pushers, someone higher up — perhaps the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith herself — can look at it and make a decent decision instead of the one we've got.

"This is about more than football now, this is a young man's life. He has had some unbelievably nasty things happen to him.

"Al Bangura came over to this country as a 15-year-old boy. He's escaped two civil wars and his father was killed in a civil war. He thought his life had changed for the better and now he's been told that he has to go back. He's having to be consoled and he's in a state of shock."

Watford's legal team were yesterday poring over the 20-page ruling which decreed that Bangura exaggerated the risk to his life if he was to return to Sierra Leone. It also said he had given differing accounts of how he arrived in Britain.

His appeal will be lodged by the end of this week. It will then take between one and four months before it reaches the High Court.

Forget the notion that this is just another work permit issue of a football club trying to secure the services of a foreign player. Bangura, who became a father 10 days ago, is at risk of reprisals from the secret society in Freetown, Sierra Leone, of which his late father was a member.

The cult indulged in barbaric practices and customs that included mutilation — a fate with which Bangura was threatened after refusing to take his father's place in the society, an act considered a betrayal by the cult.

Forced to flee to neighbouring Guinea, he was befriended by a Frenchman, who brought him to Britain, but treated him as his property as he tried to force him into prostitution.

Having been spotted by Watford playing youth football on a local park, Bangura had hoped he had found a life in Britain that would allow him to banish the harrowing memories of his childhood.

One of the mystifying aspects of the case is that the teenager originally attended a tribunal back in June and was granted leave to stay in Britain.

Because of the wording in the judgment by the tribunal judge, however, the Home Office was able to demand a fresh hearing on a technicality.

His case was argued on exactly the same grounds at the second tribunal — albeit in front of a different judge. This time, though, the ruling went against him.