A man whose wife collapsed and later died after the Home Office tried to remove the couple to their native South Africa last year has appealed against a further attempt to remove him.

During the removal attempt on 7 March 2018, officials accused Nancy Motsamai, 35, of faking illness to avoid being put on the plane. She died five days later as a result of undiagnosed ovarian cancer, deep-vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism.

In October the Home Office informed Fusi Motsamai that it still intended to remove him. He appealed, arguing that after a catalogue of injustices he should be allowed to remain in the UK.

At an appeal hearing at the immigration tribunal at Harmondsworth, near Heathrow airport, on Thursday, the Rev Lucy Brierley, of the Woking United Reformed Church, gave evidence on Motsamai’s behalf and said the church was his community. Fifteen members of the church attended the court hearing to support him.

It has emerged that the failed removal last year was part of the Home Office’s target-driven programme Operation Perceptor. This came to light when Motsamai requested the Home Office files for him and his wife. They were so heavily redacted that entire pages were blacked out.

The Home Office had a target of 12,800 enforced removals for the year 2017-18. Operation Perceptor targeted people who, like the Motsamais, did not have blood relatives in the UK, as they were perceived to be easier to remove quickly.

The couple had been living and working in the UK for more than a decade when they ran into difficulties trying to renew their visas. Both were ordered to report regularly to Eaton House, a Home Office centre in Hounslow. When they attended on 7 March they were told they were to be forcibly removed from the UK that day and returned to South Africa.

Motsamai said that when his wife complained of feeling unwell at the airport just before she collapsed, a Home Office official “told Nancy that he would handcuff her hands and feet and make her walk to the plane like a penguin, and that he would put her on to the plane even if he had to carry her”.

The Home Office’s presenting officer Matthew Williams told the court on Thursday that apart from Nancy Motsamai’s “unfortunate passing away, very little has changed”. He said therefore the Home Office wished to proceed with Fusi Motsamai’s removal to South Africa. The court is expected to give its decision in about two weeks. A Home Office spokesperson said: “As legal proceeding are ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.”

After his wife’s death, Motsamai received an apology from the Home Office for aspects of its handling of the case. The Home Office apologised for sending a text to his wife’s phone on 30 March, more than two weeks after her death, warning her of penalties if she did not attend an appointment on 5 April. The apology letter stated: “I appreciate that following her death it must have been distressing to receive this text.”

Motsamai had had problems with the Home Office before. He arrived in the UK in 2004 to do a business studies course. In 2008 he was refused permission to extend his visa and was removed back to South Africa, but in March 2009 an immigration judge ruled he had been unlawfully removed and he could return to the UK.

The judge described Motsamai’s treatment as “abrupt and harsh” and said of the Home Office’s removal document: “The document is neither signed nor dated and I have no doubt that it was never sent. It contains an error. The decision was never served on him so he couldn’t appeal. I find that the decision of the secretary of state to remove him was not in accordance with the law.”

After Thursday’s court hearing, Motsamai, 37, told the Guardian: “My family is here in the church community. I have not seen my family in South Africa for 10 years. I’ve faced a lot of injustice from the Home Office over the years and after the terrible loss of Nancy I feel I deserve some justice at last.”

The Home Office was approached for comment.