London: A person of Indian origin has been languishing in a British prison, even though he has served three years more than his sentence, apparently because officials cannot determine his nationality.
Forty-six-year-old Gurdev Singh Sheri, is being held in the privately run Parc Prison in Birdgend in Wales.
He has served his sentence for rape and now a race relations organisation is campaigning for his release.
Sheri should have been released in June 2003.
The Valleys Race Equality Council (Valrec) believes that he is being detained under an immigration order because the Home Office cannot determine his nationality.
According to Valrec, India-born Sheri came to Britain in the early 1980s. He claims he was granted citizenship in 1986 after marrying a British woman.
Before being found guilty in 1997 of raping a woman in Bedford, Sheri claims his British citizenship papers went missing.
Valrec says that Sheri would return to India regardless of what the Home Office decides.
A Home Office spokesperson said, "We do not comment on individual cases. While we would always seek to deport an individual as quickly as possible, there may be barriers to their removal that need to be overcome, for example re-documenting nationals with no travel documents.
"An individual's detention is reviewed on a regular basis by senior immigration officers. All those detained under immigration powers are able to apply to an independent immigration judge for bail."
Comments
0 comment