Asylum-seeker in last-ditch appeal

A BUSINESSMAN who has lived in Britain for 16 years after being abandoned by his family when he was a teenager, should learn today whether he will be deported back to Nigeria.

Today's hearing at the Court of Appeal is the last chance for Ben James, a 29-year-old commodities broker, to remain in Britain. He said yesterday that he would rather die than go back to Nigeria, where he has no family or any home to go to.

Despite a government announcement in July that all asylum-seekers who arrivedbefore 1993 would be given leave to stay, immigration officers are pressing to deport Mr James, arguing his case was being examined before the switch in policy.