How Home Office Told 5-Year-Old Girl She Must Leave UK While Mother Fights Deportation To Nigeria

How Home Office Told 5-Year-Old Girl She Must Leave UK While Mother Fights Deportation To Nigeria

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The Home Office issued a directive, instructing a five-year-old girl to leave the UK immediately. However, her mother was allowed to remain in the country to contest her own deportation.

The mother, who has resided in the UK for 19 years since she was 16, applied for permanent leave to remain, citing her established network of friends and family.

While her application was rejected, she was granted permission to stay and challenge the decision. Shockingly, her daughter, born in the UK and having never been to Nigeria, was ordered to leave.

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This decision to remove the girl was eventually reversed after intervention by the mother’s case worker.

The child has now been given the right to appeal the negative leave to remain decision. Currently based in Thurrock, the mother is legally prohibited from working while awaiting her immigration decision.

She aspires to train as a childminder and work in the care sector someday. The mother tearfully expressed her desire to work, to support herself and her daughter, emphasizing the financial strain of being unable to fulfill her daughter’s wishes. She revealed her hope to provide better for her daughter once she is employed.

Applicants are entitled to leave to remain status in the UK if they have continuously lived in the country for 20 years or more. Nick Beales, from the charity Ramfel, which supported the mother’s case, stated that it is highly likely she will be granted permission to stay due to her lengthy stay in the UK.

He emphasized the lack of public interest in making the client and her daughter wait idly for another year, particularly when it is inevitable that they will ultimately be allowed to remain in the UK.

Beales criticized the initial government response, which mandated the daughter’s immediate departure, and highlighted the negligent and counter-productive approach in long residence cases.

In addition, the Home Office’s rejection letter contained a factual error, falsely stating that the mother had spent the majority of her life in Nigeria, when she has been in the UK for over 19 years.

Source: The Independent