Sierra Leonean Student Denied Housing Twice in UK City Over Ebola Fears

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Amara Bangura arrived in Norwich, England, two weeks ago from Sierra Leone. He was excited to be in the city and looked forward to attending college there—except, he claims, he couldn't find a place to stay because people were worried that he might have Ebola. He shows no signs of the deadly disease and says he is in perfect health, but Bangura told BBC News that he received two denials of housing once his potential landlords saw his passport.

"Under normal circumstance. Your profile would be a great profile to be one of our lodgers," one person wrote in a letter to Bangura. "However, given that the world is about to probably experience an Ebola epidemic, we have decided not to accept anyone that has been anywhere near the ebola outbreak within the last two months, or is likely to visit those areas in the near future."

Bangura, 35, told the newspaper that he has since found housing but has been "devastated" by the rejections. "It's very unreasonable. And if you think everybody coming from Sierra Leone is affected, then that's just completely unfair," he told BBC.

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Read more at BBC News.