Boxing News — January 11, 2018

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net JANUARY 11, 2018 lBOXING NEWSl 43

AMATEURS

FAWAZ RELEASED

KELVIN FAWAZ has been released
from a detention centre. Even
though the amateur boxer, a
national champion in 2012,
has lived in Britain for 14 years,
his immigration status remains
unresolved. Denied the right to
live and work in the UK, the Home
Office could not deport him as no
other country recognises him as
a citizen. A man without a state,
he was being held in a detention
centre, seemingly indefinitely.
Fawaz was born in Nigeria, to
foreign parents and so is not a
Nigerian citizen. When he was just
14 years old he was brought to the
UK, through no choice of his own,
where he cooked and cleaned,
working essentially as a slave while
he waited for a parent who never
came. He ran away then but has
remained in limbo ever since.
Undocumented, he has been
therefore unable to work. Lucrative
offers for him to turn professional
were tabled but he could not
take them up. At least he had his
liberty, until, last year, undercover
officers snatched him from
Stonebridge amateur boxing club
and incarcerated him as the Home
Office attempted to deport him.
“They just detained me because
they had the power. They had no
process already in place to remove
me from the country. They had no
reason to detain me,” Fawaz tells
Boxing News. “It’s like being in a
prison.”
“It maximised my stress, it made
me self-harm,” he continued. “It
intensified all the emotions that
I’ve been burying and it just came
out. At times I know
how to ride a storm
and pretend that
everything is going.
But I’m human.
I have emotions,
I have feelings. I’m
bound to break
down at some
point. You keep
hitting something so
long, eventually it’s going to bend.”
He was held for weeks, with no
idea of when he would be released
or even if he would be deported
to Nigeria, a country where he has
no ties.
Fawaz, as well as winning the

national championships has even

boxed for England, against Nigeria

no less.

After Boxing News reported on

his predicament in December, his

story would subsequently come to

nationwide attention, appearing in

newspapers and even on BBC and

ITV television.

“I knew that the

public and the

press were helping

but I didn’t know

the extent to how

much,” he said.

“It’s amazing how

people can stand

behind you.”

Fawaz was

held in the detention centre over

Christmas. “My happiest time is

Christmas because I have this warm

feeling in my heart. When I walk

past and I look at homes and I see

everyone sitting down. I want one

of those,” Kelvin said. He wants a

home. “And I can’t have that.

I might be a strong person in the

ring. But there are other things to

a person. When you see a boxer,

don’t think that they’re strong.

They’ve just practised something

for so long that they’re good at it.

In a different aspect of their life

they’re just another human being,”

he explained. “It hurts, it really,

really hurts.”

Last week his bail application

was finally successful. On video link

to the court, Fawaz, remarkably,

represented himself. “I knew that

nobody can represent my case

better than I can, because it’s

happening to me,” he said. “So

I decided to take matters into my

own hands.”

He was released on the evening

of Tuesday ( January 2). By

Wednesday night he was back in

his boxing club. There he spoke

exclusively to Boxing News. “It made

me have a different perspective

about my freedom because things

that we take for granted, it becomes

very vivid when you come out.

I can walk around the streets, go to

the shops and I couldn’t do that for

months. When I came out, it just

hasn’t sunk in,” he said.

He still can’t work. He has to

live under certain restrictions

while he waits for a court case. The

date is not set. “Right now,” Kelvin

reflected. “I’m in a bigger prison.”

He continued, “I’m one of a

kind because of all the situations

that have happened to me, I’m

still pushing. I’m not a quitter.

I haven’t quit. My wife divorced

me. I couldn’t go to uni, I got three

A-levels. I couldn’t further my

career. I was offered to turn pro,

I couldn’t take that up,” Fawaz said.

“Any normal human being would

have been broken. I’m strong.

I fight. I’m not going to bow down.

“I’ve suffered enough. I don’t want

it anymore. I don’t want suffering.”

The man without a

country is out of a detention

centre but, as he tells John

Dennen, he still faces the

biggest fight of his life

NOWHERE STILL:

No longer incarcerated,

Fawaz is talented but

his life remains in limbo

‘I WANT A

HOME. AND

I CAN’T HAVE

THAT. IT

HURTS’