UAE | Crime
Kenyan appeals deportation order
A Kenyan tour operator awaiting deportation on charges of using a fake passport after being handed a month's jail term is seeking to cancel his deportation order - and claims his passport was not fake.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 23:39 December 10, 2008
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
- A deportation order is a court verdict which has to be implemented. A deportation order is only cancelled via a Ruler's decision, says Ali Humaid Bin Khatem (left) Head of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Public Prosecution
Dubai: A Kenyan tour operator awaiting deportation on charges of using a fake passport after being handed a month's jail term is seeking to cancel his deportation order - and claims his passport was not fake.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanour handed Francis Mutiga Njega, 36, the sentence in July.
Njega, who had has been in Al Awir prison for nearly six months said: "I am pleading with the authorities to cancel my deportation order because my passport is original.
"I want to stay in this country and earn a decent living. When I appeared in court in July, I told the judge that the authorities issued me a labour card with that passport... they also gave me a labour visa stamp. I failed to present my labour card the next time I appeared in court because the guards didn't let me into the courtroom.
"I was kept waiting in the stairway behind a locked door. Later I was told that the judge had sentenced me to a month in jail followed by deportation. When I was taken back to prison, the policeman there told me that I didn't need to appeal because my case involved a fake passport," Njega told Gulf News over the phone from his detention centre.
Ali Humaid Bin Khatem, Head of the Naturalisation and Residency Public Prosecution in Dubai, told Gulf News that Njega could submit a petition to cancel his deportation order to the Attorney-General's office which would look into the matter before referring the petition to the ruler's court.
"A deportation order is a court verdict which has got to be implemented. A deportation order is only cancelled via a Ruler's decision," said Bin Khatem.
Even if he gets deported, someone who represents him could still file a petition at the Public Prosecution department here or he could file a petition online himself, added Bin Khatem.
The law firm representing Njega, will lodge the petition next week.
Having reportedly lost his property in his homeland during the political and military crisis that hit Kenya earlier this year, Njega was hired as a tour operator at the Dubai-based First American Tourism Cargo Company in June.
Zaynab Uzden, a senior manager at the company, told Gulf News: "The company is aware of the case and we have been trying to support him ever since... I want Njega to be free because he was a good customer before he became our colleague.
"He is not a cheat and it is impossible that his passport was fake... otherwise how did the authorities issue him a labour visa and card."
Njega, who is married to Lucy and has a seven-year-old daughter named Angela, told the newspaper: "My job required me to drop and pick up tourists from inside the airport... I used to show my passport to customs and police officials there. I also used it to purchase more than ten passes to reach the special zone where I used to pick up and drop off tourists.
"When I walked to the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department counter at the airport to apply for an e-gate card the authorities detained me."
A deportation order is a court verdict which has to be implemented. A deportation order is only cancelled via a Ruler's decision."
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