FEARS are mounting for a Baptist asylum seeker who has not been seen in more than three months.

Members of Cemetery Road Baptist Church in Sheffield are 'gravely' concerned about Nono Bertrand, who was last seen in Sheffield city centre on March 27.

Mr Bertrand, 38, has not returned to his flat and the agency paying his rent has now stopped doing so.

He has not collected his medication or allowance in that time. South Yorkshire Police issued an appeal in early April for information on Mr Bertrand's whereabouts, but have heard nothing.

Church leaders believe Mr Bertrand is in a fragile state of mind, due to both the torture he suffered in his native Cameroon and the stress of the ensuing lengthy asylum process.

In a strongly worded letter to the then home secretary Jacqui Smith in May, the church explained that Mr Bertrand has felt 'so desperate' on several occasions over the last three years he has mentioned the possibility of suicide. 'We are now concerned that this may be the outcome,' the letter stated.

The letter also outlined how the Home Office's handling of Mr Bertrand's case had contributed to his disappearance.

'We have all been aware of the extreme stress which the inefficiency of the Home Office has been imposing upon Mr Bertrand as the months have rolled by, and eventually he seems to have snapped and has now gone to ground,' it continued.

Mr Bertrand has been in the UK since September 2003, and has been a valued member of Cemetery Road since moving to Sheffield a year later.

He was refused asylum and has had two appeals turned down. The church understands that he was being considered for permission to stay, on medical grounds.

It believes a confidential report compiled by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture substantiated Mr Bertrand's claim to have been a victim of torture.

The report was sent to the Home Office by Mr Bertrand's solicitor last autumn, but there has still been no outcome.

The Cemetery Road letter continued, 'If Mr Bertrand's case had been thoroughly and swiftly investigated and the Home Office had decided that he should be deported, we should probably have accepted it, albeit reluctantly.

'The problem is with the slowness and inefficiency of your department, which seems to have no concept of the suffering that is experienced by those at the receiving end whilst they wait, forbidden to work, unable to settle, being at risk of being moved to another town, and fearing the arrival of the police to deport them at any moment.'

The Sheffield church also urged for the system to be more humane .

'Although Mr Bertrand is our main concern, we also have contact with a number of other asylum seekers, some of whom are of other faiths, who are being kept in a similar limbo for comparable periods of time.

'We would urge you most strongly to see to it that the Home Office is given sufficient resources to deal with the claims of asylum seekers more expeditiously and humanely, so that they are not subjected to a form of torture which is almost as bad as that from which they have escaped.'

The church says it received two 'brush-off letters' from the Home Office last week, one from Liverpool, the other from Croydon.

These letters stated the Home Office couldn't discuss confidential cases, and 'failed altogether to address our complaint about the five years of torture to which they subjected Nono and so many like him'.

Mr Bertrand was forbidden to work for pay, but his voluntary work was such that he was presented to the Duke of Edinburgh at St James's Palace in 2007.

Church secretary Peter Kennett told The Baptist Times this week, 'We simply do not know whether he is dead or alive. We are very worried for him, as well as being very angry with the Home Office.'

If you have seen Mr Bertrand, who is around 5ft 6ins tall, contact South Yorkshire Police on 0114 220 20 20.