Michael Morpurgo, War Horse author, helps stop deportation of Cameroonian author The couple's literary defenders, who included Monica Ali, the novelist, and Alan Ayckbourn, the playwright, as well as Baroness Helena Kennedy, the lawyer, had written to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to criticise the decision. She added: "When I was told I was being released I just said: "Hmm." I didn't feel a lot of emotion after everything I'd been through. Although I was being released, there were still people in Yarl's Wood [detention centre] such as my roommate who'd been there for 10 months. The couple left Cameroon in 2006 as a result of their membership of the Southern Cameroon National Council, a secessionist movement which campaigns for the rights of the English-speaking minority in the south of the country. They claim they were both jailed and tortured, including Ms Besong being raped by a prison guard. The couple settled in the North West but were detained by the British authorities and held at Yarl's Wood, in Bedfordshire, for four weeks in late 2009 and told they would be deported, which began a long-running battle not to be returned. Their deportation flight was stopped by a high court judge and the UKBA said their case would be reviewed. Last month, Mr Batey's latest appeal failed but they were not informed, she said. Two weeks ago, the couple went to re-register with the immigration services in Manchester as normal only to be detained. When the writers heard of the couple's plight they wrote to the Home Secretary and, on Wednesday this week, they were released. The couple's lawyer, Gary McIndoe, said the way the Government had handled the case "continues to baffle." Ms Besong said: "We had no idea we were about to be released." The couple said they hoped that the Government would place greater emphasis on a proper analysis of the risks faced by deportees to Cameroon. Ms Besong's latest play, Down with the Dictator, is due to be performed in Manchester and Bristol in March.