BBC News | UK | Asylum seeker sent home in jet

A Ghanaian asylum seeker has been flown home in a private jet at a cost of �30,000, the Home Office has confirmed.

Its officials chartered the jet after commercial airlines refused to fly Patience Sapani-Awnobi when she became hysterical about leaving her sick son.

She was accompanied by immigration officers on the flight to Ghana on Saturday as a "last resort", a Home Office spokesman said.

Ms Sapani-Awnobi arrived in the UK in 1992 and she has a 17-year-old son entitled to stay in the UK - he suffers from sickle-cell anaemia.

If you want to maintain a firm immigration policy you have to see it through

Home Office spokesman
Two attempts were made to fly her home with passenger airlines but she became so distressed that pilots refused to take her.

A Home Office spokesman said: "She was flown back privately after several other attempts were made to fly her back conventionally.

"Pilots refused to take her, which they are well within their rights to do. If you want to maintain a firm immigration policy you have to see it through."

The woman had been staying at Biggin Hill in London.

The flight to Ghana carried a second asylum seeker whose immigration application had also been rejected.


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