Bangladeshi entrepreneur threatened with deportation

A Bangladeshi entrepreneur who been in the UK for 25 years and established a groundbreaking media company and Fairtrade café in UK is being forced by the Home Office to return to his mother country. Sam Alim has the full support of Clare Short MP former Secretary of State, as well as a number of community leaders in his pledge to appeal against the ruling.

Sam Alim has worked tirelessly for more than a decade to build up the WhatsOnUK and Café One enterprises, which now employ 50 talented young students and graduates in retail, catering, editorial, design, sales and marketing roles, all threatened with redundancy as the company will close down if he is deported.

Despite his contribution to Britains economy, media landscape and his important role in local, national and international charity projects, the Home Office has requested that Sam Alim leave the country voluntarily.

Home Office representative C. Jameson has stated Mr Alims application for leave to remain on the basis of long residence is to be refused and he must voluntarily return to Bangladesh.

Alims solicitor J.M Wilson confirms that "more than enough evidence has been provided to show that Alim has been here in the UK for the 14 years necessary to qualify for leave to remain"

Sam Alim does feel that to relocate the business to India or Bangladesh would provide employment for creative young people in his mother country. However, he is reluctant to leave his home, friends and colleagues in the UK and feels let down by the system. Sam first came to Britain when he was 10 years old when his father was a serving diplomat and Assistant High Commissioner for Bangladesh.

WhatsOnuk publishes a range of Guides for the UK student market covering all aspects of travel, media, music and festival culture and operates its OnMedia division, which provides design and multimedia services to a range of international clients.

Alim said: WhatsOnuk and Café One have made a considerable contribution to the local and national economy over the years and provided a great many jobs for talented young people in UK. It has been a pleasure to operate from here.

But he sees his situation as partly indicative of negative business attitudes in the UK. He said: The practice of outsourcing to other countries in a global economy is often preferable to running a business in Britain with red tape bureaucracy and excessive overheads. The government are doing little to help creative businesspeople and are making life hard for international entrepreneurs such as myself who choose to make the UK their centre of operations.

Clare Short MP is an enthusiastic supporter of Sam Alim and the teams work in the local community. Short is backing Sam Alims Leave To Remain application and expresses dismay at the governments action on the issue.

Clare Short said: Mr Alim is well known to me and has been for very many years. He has established a much-valued Fairtrade café that greatly benefits the community in my constituency. The action of the Home Office in this instance is disappointing. I find the decision ridiculous and arrogant, and it deeply undermines my faith in the system.

Given the current social climate Alim fears for his fellow international UK residents and businesspeople whose futures "may not be secure and are subject to arbitrary Home Office rulings at any time" citing "political point-scoring and backward attitudes that deny our rights as citizens and discourage people from investing in the UK."

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