Habib Bazaboko, who has lived in the UK since childhood, was due to fly on Friday

A judge has halted the removal of a man who has lived in the UK since childhood just hours before he was due to be deported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. It is the second time he has been within hours of deportation within a week.

Habib Bazaboko, 39, a stonemason, fled to the UK at the age of 11 after his father was murdered in his home country. He witnessed the murder and was left deeply traumatised.

He has previous convictions, including for grievous bodily harm, but has not committed any crime for nine years.

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He was due to be deported last Saturday. His case was highlighted in the Guardian and the Home Office cancelled his removal at the last minute after he had been taken to Heathrow in handcuffs.

He received a new ticket and was due to board a 6.20pm flight on Friday. His lawyers made urgent last-minute representations to the upper tribunal (immigration and asylum chamber) and at lunchtime Judge Nadine Finch issued an order preventing the removal, saying a new report about the dangers of returning to DRC “amounts to potentially significant further evidence which needs to be considered”.

After hearing the news that his forced return had again been stopped, Bazaboko said: “I felt great when my solicitor told me my deportation has been halted. I feel as if a big heavy lump of concrete has been lifted from my shoulders.”

His sister Linda Bazaboko, 47, whom he said became a surrogate mother to him after he fled to the UK as a child, said: “He has a lot of mental health problems, he won’t be able to get his regular medication in Congo. If he’s going to die I would much rather he died here than in Congo. His life won’t be safe there.”

A second man who was facing deportation to DRC, Rossi Lupepe, also had his deportation cancelled, but is still under threat of removal by the Home Office. He also has mental health problems and was hospitalised last week after smashing a bottle into his head because he was hearing voices instructing him to do this. He was taken to Hillingdon hospital in north London, received stitches to his head and was then returned to detention.

Like Bazaboko, Lupepe has been in the UK since childhood and considers Britain rather than DRC to be his home.

The Home Office removes very few people to DRC – there were just 46 forced removals in the past three years.

Evidence of torture in DRC has been widely documented. The Human Rights Watch world report 2019 noted serious human rights violations against opposition supporters, peaceful protesters and human rights activists. The charity Freedom from Torture has documented multiple accounts of torture in DRC, including a high incidence of rape.

Home Office officials have been trying to persuade their Foreign Office (FCO) colleagues to say publicly that it is safe to return people to DRC. Internal emails obtained by the human rights organisation Justice First, and seen by the Guardian, show Home Office officials requesting that their British embassy colleagues in Kinshasa issue a statement saying they have no information that people are being persecuted after being returned to DRC.

This evidence is contained in a report by Catherine Ramos called Unsafe Return III. It is on the basis of this report that the judge halted Friday’s planned removal.

Bella Sankey, the director of the charity Detention Action, said: “While the nation is distracted by Brexit, the government is attempting to deport long-term British residents to DRC, in spite of credible evidence they are subjected to grave human rights violations. Habib Bazaboko and Rossi Lupepe have been here since early childhood, both are ‘more British than foreign’ and have repaid their debt to society several times over. Their continued detentions and threatened deportations give the lie to Theresa May’s claim to fight burning injustice.”

Asked about the case last week, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We only return those with no legal right to remain in the UK, including foreign national offenders and failed asylum seekers, where it is safe to do so. We carefully consider all asylum claims, including those made by foreign national offenders, on their individual merits and on the evidence available against available country information and relevant case law.

“Those found to be in need of protection are not expected to return to their country. Where a decision has been made that a person does not require international protection, removal is only enforced when we conclude that it is safe to do so, with a safe route of return.”

