Majid Ali: Glasgow student - 'feared dead' after 'forced' deportation - tells lecturer hours before: 'I'm scared'
NUS Scotland president says Home Office 'will have to answer for their actions' if the worst scenario has happened
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Your support makes all the difference.The Glasgow student – who has not been heard from since he was ‘forcibly’ removed from the country by a non-commercial military flight – is said to have called his lecturer hours beforehand to tell her he was ‘scared’.
In an “emotional” conversation, Rosie Quin, an English language lecturer at City of Glasgow College, told the Sunday Herald how she called Majid Ali after she learned he had lost his battle to remain in the country and would be removed to Pakistan.
She said: “I learned…that there probably wasn’t any more that people could do, so I called his phone and he answered and he was at Heathrow. He said: ‘I’m scared, I’m scared’. He was aware of what was going to happen and seemed to be in shock.
“I said to him: ‘Try and let us know you’re safe when you get to Pakistan’ and he said: ‘OK’.”
Telling Ms Quin to thank all those who helped him in his fight to stay, the senior lecturer added: “It was really emotional.
“He knew people were trying to help him but I don’t know if he realised the enormity of it.”
Friends of the student say they have not heard from Mr Ali for almost two weeks now since his ‘rushed’ removal and that ‘his phone hasn’t been ringing out’, prompting fears that he has been either detained by authorities – or killed upon arrival.
Mr Ali applied for asylum in the UK in 2011 after consistently accusing Pakistani authorities of raiding his family home in Balochistan – and shooting dead his uncle and cousin – because of their political beliefs.
Claiming his brother was the victim of an ‘enforced disappearance’ after being abducted by government forces, hundreds of fellow students protested tirelessly against Mr Ali’s deportation and the hashtag #DontDeportMajid began trending on Twitter.
NUS Scotland’s president, Gordon Maloney, says the Government will have to be held accountable if Mr Ali is found to have been killed and added: “All the available evidence pointed to the serious danger Majid faced if he was forcibly returned to Pakistan and there’s a very real worry that those fears have now been realised.
“Despite the clear risk to his life – and the history of deadly repercussions his family have faced – the Home Office shamefully refused to listen.
“If our very worst fears are realised then the Home Office will have to answer for their actions – and we’ll take every possible step to ensure they do.”
The Home Office refused to comment directly on Mr Ali’s case.
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