Woman sent back to Singapore despite 27-year marriage.
A woman
married to a British man for 27 years has been sent back to
Singapore.
Irene Clennell told the BBC she has been removed without
warning. She had been living near Durham with her husband, and has two British
sons, as well as a granddaughter, in the UK.
Periods spent abroad caring for her parents are thought to have
invalidated her residential status. It is understood Mrs Clennell has spent most of her life in
Singapore.
The Home Office said it expected all those without leave to remain to
exit the country once their visa expires. Woman faces removal after 27 years
Mrs Clennell told the BBC she was put in a van and taken to the airport from the Dungavel Detention Centre in South
Lanarkshire on Saturday.
She also said she was unable to contact her lawyer and did not have the
chance to get any clothes from her home.
She had been held at the facility since the start of
February.
Applications rejected
Mrs Clennell, who had been living in Chester-le-Street, was given
indefinite leave in 1992 to remain in the UK after her marriage - but this
lapsed because she lived outside the UK for more than two
years.
According to Li Goh-Piper, a Kent-based supporter who is running a
petition calling for her return to the UK, she had arrived in 1988 and married
two years later.
Mrs Clennell and her husband moved to Singapore in 1992, before Mr
Clennell returned to the UK in 1998 with their children.
Mrs Clennell remained to care for her mother and says she came back to
the UK several times for short visits. She lived in the UK in 2003 until January
2005 and says that during this time she made numerous applications for leave to
remain, which were all rejected.
After being turned back at a UK airport in 2007, she makes another
application at the British High Commission in Singapore in 2012. However, Mrs
Goh-Piper says, this was rejected on the basis that Mrs Clennell did not provide
proof of contact with her family.
Visa rules
- A Returning Resident visa is required to come back to live in the UK if a person given indefinite leave to enter or remain loses their documents or is away for more than two years
- An application must demonstrate a person has strong family ties to the UK, has lived in the UK most of their life, their current circumstances and why they have lived outside the UK
- Ruling does not apply if an applicant has a spouse or partner who is a member of the UK armed forces and joins them overseas
Mrs Clennell eventually entered the UK in 2013 and made two applications
for leave to remain - both were rejected, as was her final application in
2016.
Mrs Goh-Piper also said Mrs Clennell did not apply for a British passport
because Singapore does not allow dual nationality, and she needed to remain a
Singapore national to live in a government flat there.
Mrs Clennell says her husband is now in poor health and she has become
his principal carer.
Previously speaking to the BBC's Fiona Walker from the Scottish detention
centre, she said: "I knew that when I got indefinite leave to remain I can't
stay outside of the country for more than two years.
"But then my husband was with me, he came to live with me for five years
in Singapore.
"Initially when I applied for indefinite leave to remain I got it no
problem at all. So I thought when you're married down here, you're entitled to
be here.
"The kids are born here, my husband is from this country, so I don't see
what the issue is, but they keep rejecting all the
applications."
A Home Office spokesman said: "All applications for leave to remain in
the UK are considered on their individual merits and in line with the
immigration rules.
"We expect those with no legal right to remain in the country to
leave."
The charity Migrant Voice says a campaign is starting to bring her back
to Britain.
Director Nazek Ramadan said her case was "yet another example of how
arbitrary policies tear apart families and ruin lives". BBC
News.
