News

A former England boxer and Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ client who we successfully represented in a lengthy battle to remain in the UK has notched up two more victories – his first professional boxing bouts.

Kelvin Bilal Fawaz, a victim of child trafficking, was the subject of a 16-year legal tussle with the Home Office which ended in a victory for him and our public law team when he was eventually granted leave to remain for 30 months in 2020.

The boxing loving 33-year-old and former England amateur captain got the chance to begin his professional boxing career with his first fight against the experienced Russian, Vladimir Fleischhauer, at York Hall last month.

Bilal emerged victorious from that match, and then won a second bout just a fortnight later, defeating Malam Varela in the third round.

Everyone in the public law team was delighted to see him begin his career with two comfortable stoppage wins.

Public law director Ahmed Aydeed said: “This is a truly incredible story and a fantastic result for Bilal. Unfortunately, he will never be able to get back the 16 years the Home Office so cruelly stole from him, but he has now gloriously resumed his career. It really is an honour to see Bilal finally live out his childhood dream. He’s had to fight for everything in life, including access to his basic rights, and he’s now fought his way back into a successful professional boxing career.”

Bilal was trafficked to the UK from Nigeria when he was a child, and had been trying to establish his adult nationality and immigration status since the period of discretionary leave he was granted as a child expired when he turned 18.

The Home Office refused to accept that the expiration of his discretionary leave left him stateless. The situation worsened when officials delayed a decision on the case, refused to grant him a work permit, and attempted to deport him to Nigeria, despite the fact that he is not Nigerian.

The Home Office attempted to justify their decision to deport Bilal by citing low-level criminal charges that he accrued as a traumatised child in the care system, to claim that he posed a risk to the public, placing him under the Home Office Operation Nexus High Harm Team.

He was also twice detained in immigration removal centres and was only released from Brook House immigration detention centre after we threatened the Home Office with legal action for unlawful detention. This was despite previously recognising him as an adult at ‘risk’ on mental health grounds.

Bilal discovered his passion for boxing whilst in the care system. He represented England at amateur level but the Home Office’s refusal to grant him a work permit denied him the chance of a professional career and to represent Britain at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and also stopped him taking up a £200k contract with promoter Frank Warren.

Bilal instructed our Birmingham-based public law team in May 2019 when he was in detention. Judicial review applications were also lodged in relation to Bilal’s trafficking decision and the failure by the Home Office to grant him discretionary leave to remain despite accepting him as a victim of trafficking.

Upon threating the Home Office with multiple legal challenges in the High Court, they conceded that he should be allowed to remain in the UK, granting him leave to remain for 30 months in light of his exceptional personal history. This gave him the right to work.

A claim for indefinite leave to remain and one of false imprisonment against Home Office are ongoing and are being led by Ahmed and his team, solicitor Kimete Murga and trainee solicitor Kathryn Nguyen.