Jailed in UK

I am writing this short letter of mine to show the Gambian people who are out there and want to come to the UK. My advice to those youths is to work hard and make a good life in Africa. I am saying this with regards to the problems that I am facing now in the UK along with many other Gambians, something most of my country men don’t know.

I was convicted for a crime that I did not commit, sentenced to 6 months. I did half of the time but I have now been kept in detention for 9 good months without reason and many other Gambians are also in detention centres without reason.These are the problems we are facing in the UK at the moment; a lady who also travelled from The Gambia and was expecting a baby was also detained here.

After we Gambians try our best to be nice to these British people they treat us badly. This is my message to my fellow country men.



We have removed Mr Ceesay’s most bitter comments for they may be seen as inciting violence. We were not in court to assess the fairness of Mr Ceesay’s conviction, but it is a fact that both the British and US penal systems deal with Black people unjustly - research after research in UK and US have established that fact.

Mr. Ceesay’s detention may be because he is awaiting deportation - either because he was deemed an “illegal alien” or his conviction is deemed to have contravened the conditions under which he had a right to remain in UK. Either way he should not be detain for 9 months and we sympathise.