Those of you who remember Moh (see the Dangerous Detention and Dangerous Job pages here) may be interested to hear about Flora. Flora lives in Hull. Her case is different to Moh’s case because she is not an asylum seeker, and her claim to stay is on other grounds, as I explain below.

What happened

Flora Yennyuy has applied for leave to appeal to the Immigration Appeals Tribunal against the Home Office’s refusal to allow her to remain in the UK. An acquaintance from Cameroon, who is an EU citizen, sent her the names of several universities to apply to in 2006. She came to the UK from Cameroon in 2007 to do a Master’s degree at the University of Hull, and she received her MSc in Environmental Technology in 2010. They later began a relationship in the UK and he supported her application for a work visa based on their relationship. The visa was due to expire in 2016.

However, the relationship broke down after he subjected her to abuse, violence and, finally, sexual assault. He then informed the Home Office that the relationship had broken down and the Home Office revoked her work visa. They did not inform her of this. She went to Germany to visit friends and on her return she was refused entry and placed in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre. She was released on bail after 5 months, and she had a tribunal hearing in October 2013. The tribunal judge rejected her appeal, saying that she did not believe her claim of domestic violence and that Article 8 (the right to family life) of the human rights legislation was not engaged. If her claim of domestic violence had been accepted she believes she would have been given indefinite leave to remain. She has now made an application for leave to appeal to the Upper Tier of the Tribunal.

Flora’s history in Hull

Flora came to the UK as a student and then to work. She has made herself part of the community in Hull in a number of different ways: she has worked at the Open Doors Project at Princes Avenue Methodist Church since 2008 as a volunteer, where she campaigned in schools together with other volunteers to break the stigma attached to refugees and asylum seekers. She has also worked in Humber All Nations Alliance (HANA), the Mental Health Action Group (MHAG), the Refugee Council, The Haven Project, Positive Assets and Environmail Hull. She has also been an active member in the Catholic Compliancy. In terms of jobs she has worked as a Health Care Assistant under NHS-Hull and HICA, a sales assistant in the British Heart Foundation and as a factory operative at Greencore cake and dessert factory. The relationship she was in broke down through no fault of her own and she should not be punished for it. She wishes to stay and continue building her life in the UK.

Flora’s application is supported by Unite the Union’s community branch in Hull.