Gambiaj.com – (Liverpool, UK) – The deportation of a 55-year-old Gambian woman from the UK was dramatically halted just hours before takeoff on Tuesday after a judge granted a last-minute judicial review of her case.
Fatou Tamba, a long-time Liverpool resident who has lived in the UK for 16 years, was taken from Yarl’s Wood immigration detention center at 3am and rushed to Heathrow Airport despite ongoing legal proceedings contesting her removal.
Her flight was scheduled to depart at 4:40pm, leaving her legal team scrambling to secure judicial intervention.
Just two hours before her scheduled deportation, a judge accepted her application for a judicial review, delaying the Home Office’s latest attempt to remove her to The Gambia. It marked the second such attempt, after a similarly traumatic experience on May 6, when she was also taken to the airport in the middle of the night only to have her flight canceled at the last moment.
Tamba, who has no criminal record and is considered a valued member of her community in Liverpool, is reportedly facing deteriorating physical and mental health after nearly four months in immigration detention. Her lawyers say she is suffering from PTSD and that her diabetes and arthritis have worsened during her time in custody. She now requires a wheelchair for mobility.
“She has been here for 16 years. She’s done everything right. No criminal record, no trouble. It feels like they have a personal fight with her,” her brother Lamin Tamba told The Independent. “She faces death threats in The Gambia, and her health will not survive there. The care she needs just doesn’t exist.”
Ms. Tamba fled The Gambia in 2009, citing political persecution linked to her family’s activism. She also endured a childhood marked by forced marriage and abuse, having been wed at age 14 to a man three decades her senior. She lived in Birmingham before settling in Liverpool, where she has been active in refugee support work and lived with her partner.
Her legal representatives say she complied with immigration requirements for years, attending regular check-ins. However, during one such appointment in March, she was detained without prior notice.
Despite her severe medical needs and a pending legal case, the Home Office issued a new deportation notice for June 17. Her lawyer, Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said, “We are delighted a judge has stayed her removal. Despite last-minute decisions and lack of transparency from the Home Office, the judge recognized the risks involved in her case. Fatou has suffered immensely in detention, and we are working to secure her return to her community in Liverpool.”
The Home Office declined to comment on the case, citing its policy of not discussing individual immigration matters.
Ms. Tamba remains in detention pending the outcome of her judicial review, but for now, her deportation has been stopped—offering a temporary reprieve in what her family and lawyers describe as an emotionally and physically devastating ordeal.
