London, United Kingdom - A Somali man forcibly returned to Mogadishu from the UK under a controversial new scheme to send home failed asylum seekers has described how he was punched and kicked by the British guards who accompanied him, and left him bleeding in a cell after having a tooth knocked out.

The man, who did not want to be identified because he fears for his safety, also told Al Jazeera how he was restrained in handcuffs for most of his journey aboard the Turkish Airlines flights via Istanbul, and pressured by his escorts to sign a document stating that he had returned to his homeland voluntarily.