'Living in fear of being deported is hard to bear'

A woman who faces deportation from Hull says she has been left traumatised by her ordeal. Flora Yennyuy, from Cameroon, is grateful for the support she has received since she was released from a detention centre in September.

But she said the memories of being locked up for eight months and now living with the threat of being forced out of the city she has lived in for seven years is too much to bear.

Ms Yennyuy is now on bail after being ordered to return to her native west African country when her appeal to stay in the UK was rejected. Her flight back to Cameroon was booked but cancelled when her solicitor stepped in.

She is now awaiting the outcome of a second appeal.

Ms Yennyuy, 34, said: "I am living with the constant threat and trauma of it all. I have been really affected by it. I can't do anything, I can't work. "Sometimes, when I feel down, I don't want to come out of my house and I still have flashbacks of the detention centre.

"I don't know my future and that scares me."

Ms Yennyuy was told to leave the country when her visa was revoked following a weekend holiday to Germany to visit a friend.

She was sent to a detention centre in Bedfordshire.

She came to Hull in 2007 and completed a master's degree in environmental technology at the University of Hull.

She became a stalwart of the community, working voluntarily with the churches in west Hull and the city's Open Doors Project.

Ms Yennyuy was also a trustee at the Mental Health Action Group, where she was involved in making black and minority ethnic communities aware of mental health issues.

But because she now has no visa, she cannot work while the appeal is ongoing and is surviving on parcels from the food bank.

She is still volunteering and working with the church but has also turned to them for help.

She is receiving counselling and support at The Haven Project and the Women's Centre.

Ms Yennyuy said: "It is helping me but it becomes so difficult because, at the same time, people don't understand what I am going through and it is hard for me to open up and explain the situation."

She says she is also the subject of prejudice from people who think she is given government benefits.

Ms Yennyuy has not been allowed support from the state since her visa was revoked.

Now she is waiting for news from her solicitor over her fate and remains hopeful her case will be upheld.

She said: "I feel so welcome in Hull. Hull is my home."

"A lot of people who knew me before all this still keep in contact.

"I feel like I have a family here.

"When I was in the detention centre, people held night vigils for me and prayed for me.

"They telephoned me to make sure I was okay and some came to visit me."

A petition was launched to stop Ms Yennyuy from being deported as the community rallied round to support her.

The petition on the Change.org website attracted hundreds of signatures.