A disabled asylum-seeker told the Star yesterday that he was beaten by staff tasked to deliver him to Heathrow airport for deportation.

Alain Kouayep Tchatchue was delivered to Heathrow early on Saturday from nearby Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre.

Visually impaired Mr Tchatchue claimed that when he refused to board a flight to Cameroon, from which he fled because he is bisexual, he was attacked.

He alleged that the two staff responsible for taking him to the airport dragged him back to the transportation van, punched him repeatedly in the ribs and then left him in the van for over three hours with his hands and feet tied.

Mr Tchatchue claimed that the two staff told him "they were just doing their job."

Speaking to the Star from the detention centre yesterday, he said: "I couldn't see properly and was screaming 'please help me.'

"They tied my feet together and handcuffed me. I could feel them putting pressure on my neck.

"They untied my feet after three hours but I was handcuffed for over four."

Eventually Mr Tchatchue was returned to the detention centre after it was decided he was too ill to travel.

He has subsequently put in a complaint to the police, but said he was still suffering with mobility problems in his shoulder for which he has needed painkillers all week.

He told the Star: "I am very scared and upset. Even now I can't sleep. This is a very difficult time in my life."

Mr Tchatchue fled Cameroon after having a relationship with a man and said that reports about his sexuality had appeared in the local press there and he would be in danger if he was deported.

Manchester Metropolitan Church pastor Andy Braunston has been campaigning on Mr Tchatchue's behalf.

He said: "Alain is a blind man who uses a white stick to get around and who has fled here because of fear of the violence of the state in Cameroon."

The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office were unavailable for comment.