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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Diane Taylor

Refugee who left UK for holiday in 2008 stranded in east Africa for 16 years

Copy of Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali's travel document
Ali lost his travel document in Djibouti and tried to get help from the UK embassy in neighbouring Ethiopia, where he remains. Photograph: Ali family handout

A refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at the age of nine in April 2000 with his mother and two younger siblings from Somalia. They came to join Ali’s father, who had been granted refugee status by the UK government. The family were also recognised as refugees by the Home Office and Ali was given a travel document in 2004 under the refugee convention, which was valid for 10 years.

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