Nigerian-born boxer who represented England 6- times faces deportation for illegal immigration, locked in immigration detention center

29-year-old Bilal Fawaz, an elite level boxer who has fought
for England six times is facing being deported to Nigeria. .
Fawaz was detained at the Tinsley House Immigration
Centre at Gatwick Airport in West Sussex on November 29.
The boxer, who has competed for England six times and
was the 2012 ABA light-middleweight champion, came to
England when he was 14. .
.
Brought to the UK illegally by an uncle, he was told his
father would be arriving soon, but the man never turned up.

Fawaz, who calls himself Kelvin, was treated ‘like a slave’
before he ran away from the home he was living in and was
taken into care. .
Now married to an English woman, the boxing prodigy went
through a turbulent period involving drug gangs, getting shot
once and stabbed a reported 25 times. .
However, he turned his life around after taking up boxing in
2011 and has risen through the ranks to become one of
Britain’s top amateur boxers currently ranked the third best
middleweight in England. .
But the Home Office has rejected his application to remain
in the UK and declared his marriage to a British citizen void.

The boxing champ said he was now facing being deported
to Nigeria, somewhere he has not been since he was
sneaked out of the country by his uncle as a teenager. .
He said: “I’m allowed to box for England but I’m not
allowed to stay in England. I’ve spent over half of my life
here I went to school here, I lived here, I’ve boxed for
England six times and never lost. I am a national
champion in 2014 I even boxed for England against Nigeria,
the country they want to deport me to.” The boxer says he
is technically ‘stateless,’ as his parents were Lebanese
immigrants to Nigeria, and they themselves didn’t have
Nigerian citizenship. .

His mother is dead and he says he had “no idea” where his
father is. He added: “I have no other family to go back to, I
don’t know anyone in Nigeria or anything about it — all I
know is here."

Labour MP McDonnell and England Boxing have appealed to
the authorities on the boxer’s behalf, but without success.