A NORTH-EAST MP has spoken out after a man was sent back to his native country despite fears for his safety.

Stockton North MP Frank Cook said he is appalled by the plight of Blaise Kamba, who was returned to the Democratic Repuplic of Congo on Tuesday and immediately arrested.

His sisters Leitisha and Jeanine Kamba have been allowed to stay at their home in Stockton.

In a letter to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, Mr Cook said Mr Kamba’s plight underlines the concerns he and other MPs expressed in a House of Commons Motion calling for deportation to the Congo to be stopped.

Mr Cook said: "The deportation of people to the Congo was suspended in 2007 because of fears over possible torture.

"However it has recently been resumed following a Court of Appeal ruling which argued that asylum seekers were not at risk of persecution or ill-treatment because they had claimed asylum.

"I do not know on what basis their learned judges took that decision but it is patently clear from the experience of Blaise Kamba and others that the risks are very real and very severe."

In 2006, the three siblings fled their home country after Blaise, who was a member of the protest group the Movement National Congolais Lumumba, attended a demonstration and was imprisoned.

He escaped and now fears that returning home would lead to almost certain death.

Their father died in 1995 and they have had no news on their mother since 2003.

Leitisha, 19, and Jeanine, 16, both students at Stockton Riverside College, are said to be devastated at the decision about their brother.