MORE than 2,000 people are backing a campaign to save a Reading man faced with being deported from Britain.

Frank Mbutu arrived in this country 16 years ago from his native Tanzania and settled in Caversham.

Now immigration chiefs are on the brink of sending the railway worker back to the African country – detaining him after discovering his appeal to remain here was rejected a year after he arrived.

Now 1,831 people have signed a petition demanding the Home Office lets him stay – claiming he has built a life here and was unaware permission had lapsed.

More than £2,000 towards legal fees have also been raised by his friends.

Close friend Guy Reed launched the petition on behalf of Mr Mbutu, who lives in Gosbrook Road, and works for CrossCountry trains.

He said his friend arrived in Britain on a student visa in 1999 and applied for a right to remain in the country a year later.

Mr Reed said the application was rejected and subsequently appealed and during that time his solicitor left the company telling Mr Mbutu the case was being handed over to another colleague.

But Mr Reed claims Mr Mbutu only discovered the appeal had been rejected when he applied for a new passport last year and he has now re-appealed.

Part of Mr Mbutu's appeal process was to sign on monthly in London and it was there that he was detained and sent to Brook House Immigration Centre, Mr Reed said.

Mr Reed writes in a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May: “Frank has never broken a law, has paid taxes, never claimed benefits and is loved by everyone who knows him.”

Mr Reed said most of his friend's family now live in America, apart from his 80-year-old mother suffering with dementia and added: “If deported, Frank will be forced to build a new life alone and in a country that is unfamiliar to him. Quite simply, Frank is a benefit to our country and deporting him would be inhumane.

“We hope to receive enough support to convince the home office to reconsider their decision, review Frank's case and make the right decision by allowing him to remain in the UK.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases.

“All applications are considered on their individual merits and in line with the Immigration Rules.”

View the petition at www.change.org/p/rt-hon-theresa-may-mp-don-t-deport-frank-mbutu-from-the-uk