Antonio Bravo - Update Monday 22nd August 2011
Have spoken to the Manuel Bravo Project (MBP) in Leeds, they say that the story by Nina Bernstein, was jumping the gun a bit.

Antonio Bravo's present leave to remain is running out, but as yet he has not made an application to renew the leave, he does have legal representation and they shortly will submit documents to UKBA.

Have asked MBP to keep 'Freemovement' informed.

Did Manuel Bravo die in vain?

Manuel killed himself in Yarl's Wood IRC on the 15th September 2005, his death had in his own words and at his own hands, no other purpose but to prevent UKBA deporting his son

Antonio Bravo - Son of Manuel, facing deportation

In Father's Memory, Fighting to Stay in Britain

- The boy was 13 when a dawn immigration raid abruptly ended his father's four-year quest for political asylum in Britain. By nightfall of that day in 2005, father and son were hundreds of miles from home, locked in the privately run Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Center here, scheduled for deportation to their native Angola in the morning.

Instead, shortly after midnight, the despondent father, Manuel Bravo, 35, walked to a stairwell with a bed sheet and hanged himself. The note he left said why: so that his orphaned boy could stay in Britain.

Indeed, the law did not allow immigration authorities to deport an orphan who had no one waiting for him. A British family the Bravos knew through church took the boy, Antonio, home to Armley, the working-class suburb of Leeds where they had settled in 2001.

Antonio, now 19, is an apprentice electrician who aspires to be an engineer. Not far from his father's hilltop grave, he shares a century-old house with five British roommates and regularly visits the family who raised him. "I want to make my dad proud and not feel like he gave his life away for no reason," he said.

But next month, Antonio faces the threat of deportation all over again. Under changing laws, instead of qualifying for citizenship this year, as he expected, he is not eligible to apply. His temporary residence permit, granted on humanitarian grounds, is expiring with no clear path to renewal.

Read the full article here . . . .

Manuel Bravo, a national of Angola living in Leeds was 'snatched' by immigration officials with his son Antonio on the morning of Wednesday 14th September. In the early hours of Thursday the 15th September Manuel was found hanging in a stairwell at Yarl's Wood Removal Centre. Manuel and Antonio had been living in Armley, Leeds for the last three years after leaving war-torn Angola.

 Our understanding is that Manuel Bravo's parents had been killed and his sister raped in Angola. Manuel, his wife Lydia and their two sons, Antonio and Mellyu fled Angola, arriving in the UK in 2001 where they settled in Leeds.

Earlier this year Lydia returned to Angola with Mellyu to care for relatives there. A few months later Manuel received a letter from the International Red Cross telling him that his wife had been arrested on arriving in Angola and that both his wife and son have disappeared.

Reportedly, Manuel had an asylum hearing but had not heard anything back from the Home Office. The Home Office are said to have claimed that they sent two letters of refusal to Manuel, and Manuel is said to have maintained he had not received any letter.

Earlier this week Manuel told friends he had received a call from Immigration asking of his whereabouts and he had gone to seek advice from a solicitor. He said he had paid the solicitor £300 and was told to return in a couple of days.

Immigration arrested Manuel and 13-year-old Antonio on Wednesday morning and took them to Yarl's Wood removal Centre with "removal directions" set for Thursday.

Reverend Alistair Kaye, of Christ Church, Armley, in Leeds, said he had spoken to Manuel on Wednesday evening from inside Yarl's Wood; "He was absolutely terrified of going back". Rev Kaye said on Thursday morning that he had a phone call from the Chaplain at Yarl's Wood saying that Manuel had taken his own life.

We have been told that Manuel had said to his son to be brave and do well at school. He left a suicide note mentioning that an injustice had been done, and hung himself in a stairwell. It was said that the suicide had been captured on CCTV in Yarl's Wood.

We have been informed that Antonio has been taken out of Yarl's Wood by Bedfordshire Social Services and that representatives of the church in Leeds are trying to get agreement that Antonio be taken back to Leeds where he was attending school.

Rev Alistair Kaye, who visited Antonio yesterday said. "We went to the mortuary with him to see his dad. I spent some time with him. We are hoping to get him back up to Leeds. In three or four days time he is going to come and stay with a family from the church for a few weeks, and spend some time with friends. They have said it could be up to a week down here so we are going to send some of the congregation down here to Bedford to be with him. He is staying in Hitching. He is out of Yarl's Wood. He is free to go. They cannot deport him. It would be illegal to deport a minor. They have no grounds to deport a minor."

John Battle MP for Leeds West where Manuel lived has demanded an inquiry into the case.

An investigation into the death is to be launched by the Prisons and Probation Service Ombudsman Stephen Shaw.