Widow faces deportation from the UK despite being 92 and frail

The British govt has ruled to deport a 92 year old woman with heart problems from the UK. She came from South Africa to live with her only relative, her daughter, in 2014 and now will have to leave to go back to South Africa where she has no living relatives.

Add to this that she was born under the British flag and both her father and brother fought from Britain in the first and second world wars.

This is an absolute disgrace and shows just how utterly off the rails the British govt has become on immigration. I have never been moved to sign petitions but this is an exception.

i am utterly sickened by our govt.

www.theguardian.com...

That's mean.
That's really, really mean.a reply to: UKTruth

a reply to: UKTruth

someone 90 plus should literally be able to do whatever they want where they want. except drive and be naked. bad form govnas

Well, her daughter could go and live with her?

This type of dilemma is quite emotional and difficult. I won't say my view on this, but has this old lady with heart problems any greater right to sponge off the hard-up NHS than some Bangladeshi migrant in the UK illegally, but just so happens to have a medical complaint, or some other emotion-tugging problem, like a baby born over here?

originally posted by: paraphi
Well, her daughter could go and live with her?

This type of dilemma is quite emotional and difficult. I won't say my view on this, but has this old lady with heart problems any greater right to sponge off the hard-up NHS than some Bangladeshi migrant in the UK illegally, but just so happens to have a medical complaint, or some other emotion-tugging problem, like a baby born over here?

She already has an income from her late husbands pension and her duaghter is looking after her. She is not sponging off anyone. You know, there are some situations where common sense should still prevail. As human beings we don't need to be so robotic as to look for all the reasons why someone else might not be allowed to stay. Part of the problem with society, in my view, is that it lacks compassion. Far too cynical and a 'me' cluture that automatically jumps to 'well if he/she can, I can' response.

ha love it.
clueless right wingers constantly bleat on about immigrants, blaming them for everything and, using it as a base argument to leave europe.
put an old white chick up for deportation and quelle surprise...
the right is up in arms!!!
what is her colour fine? or the fact her enlarged heart and sight/hearing issues are not a strain on the NHS?
being a leftie, she should stay, just pointing out the frivolous arguments kippers use, yet demanding a white lady stays.

I am speechless?

a reply to: stinkelbaum

none of the immigrants are cute old people, duh. people like babies and old people, not the part in between. Why do you think the bible skips to jesus when he is 35 after he is born. That was an old man back then

originally posted by: Blastoff
That's mean.
That's really, really mean.a reply to: UKTruth

Be kind to the op he's only writing a petition.

a reply to: UKTruth

Like I said, it's difficult and emotional. However, her modest income is hardly going to cover her medical bills because they're free and based on an assumption the receiver has paid into the system.

The law is often a blunt instrument. Capita are just enacting their contracted outputs - to deport over-stayers and others who are in the UK illegally.

For what it's worth, I always err on the side of the emotions in predicaments like this, because that's the right thing to do. The courts / tribunals (or whatever) can work out the detail, which is what is going on now. However, I stand by my original comparison because the laws are there to deal with illegal immigrants, and that's what the public wants.

a reply to: paraphi

I was just thinking about this the other day. Would they deport the elderly, especially if they had absolutely no means to take care of themselves? Or would it be humane to give them amnesty because of their advanced age ?

originally posted by: paraphi
However, her modest income is hardly going to cover her medical bills because they're free and based on an assumption the receiver has paid into the system.

The NHS has never worked on the assumption that one has paid into the system, otherwise they would refuse people who holiday in the UK treatment.

This story just sums up everything that is wrong with society and its callous nature, I'm truly appalled that the government would even consider doing such a thing to somebody who likely doesn't have long left

As for being a strain on the NHS if we ever get a competent government there would be no strain on NHS or education systems

a reply to: UKTruth

Thanks to Abu Hamza.
He embarrassed the UK government for years by abusing the law to avoid deportation.
Now it seems they aren't going to be seen as a soft touch any more.
As harsh as it seems, the law needs to be applied neutrally in every case.
Perhaps if more attention was paid to people when they arrive, these kind of cases wouldn't keep popping up. Unfortunately, due to the amount of people who enter illegally, people are going to get scooped up by the system only after they've managed to settle and make homes for themselves.

Funny, though, according to the press, we only ever seem to deport nice, fluffy folk who really all deserve to stay. Hmmmmm

Happily the decision to deport this lady was reversed, apparently after a 50 odd thousand petition was organised.

Sorry, cannot provide link to the update - treat yourselves to a scroll through the DM to find it

originally posted by: berenike
Happily the decision to deport this lady was reversed, apparently after a 50 odd thousand petition was organised.

Sorry, cannot provide link to the update - treat yourselves to a scroll through the DM to find it

Figured it would be.

Government had to comply with law first. Law doesn't allow favoritism.

originally posted by: Discotech
The NHS has never worked on the assumption that one has paid into the system, otherwise they would refuse people who holiday in the UK treatment.

I am afraid you are wrong. If you are not a British citizen then you need to pay the NHS. Exemptions are EU citizens who have an insurance card. A tourist who falls ill in the UK would be charged and if they did not have health insurance then they would have to pay, but they would be treated regardless.

The NHS would not turn anyone away, including this granny. Quite rightly so.

a reply to: UKTruth

This is what happen's when secularism takes over, beurocrats following legal guidlines have no time for the human element and the christian common decency and humanity which once would have over ruled such bewildering lack of empathy has since been sidelined by the apparchnics of Tory britain and there machine like blind rolling over and destruction of lives.

Sad, at least they have stayed it for now but given that this woman is very poorly how much of her dying suffering are they guilty of, it is not like she was an illegal migrant after benefit's and job's, she merely came in her dying years to be with her daughter as she could no longer look after herself, I am against migration by those with no tie's to our nation but she most certainly does have very strong tie's to our nation and this is a human story that must leave it's lesson and she must not be forgotten.

The individuals whom decided to pursue this at the home office are probably less british than she is like the sikh and pakistani airport customs staff at heathrow and gatwick whom regularly turn away australian, new zealand and canadian's whom are actually british ethnic if they suspect they are coming to stay her without a visa.

Racism is blind and so too are regulation's, they need to bring back the human element and some common sense christian decency, this old lady has a right to be with her daughter god bless her.

The immigration laws pertaining to dependents are mostly fair and clearly laid out. There will always be isolated cases that test the boundaries but I'm not sure that this should be one of them as heartless as it might sound.

She didn't enter as a dependent because extensions are pretty easy to obtain so my guess would be she came in as a visitor as theres not many categories a person of that age would be eligible for, I'm having a hard time finding details of her original application which seems to be being deliberately omitted in the press.

If she did enter as a visitor with a degenerative pre-existing medical condition then she played the system, milked the nhs and did exactly the thing that gives all the people calling for tougher immigration laws an apoplexy when it's not a nice old granny. You can't have it both ways.

a reply to: paraphi

Technically we're both right and wrong

Some services or treatments carried out in an NHS hospital are exempt from charges, so that they are free to all.

From the NHS website

It is also worth noting about this elderly lady Myrtle Cothill that she is ethnically British and though she was born in south africa she was born into the British empire at a time when that nation was settled and ruled by the British empire, I am not being racist (or I definitely never used to be and am of mixed lineage myself) but if she had been an Indian pensioner this would likely never have happened and this is a rot that has gone right through our system over here in which our own and those whom ARE from us are discriminated against unfairly, for example I remember a tale told to Me by a lady whom worked in the DUP back in the 90's about how they would turn down English claiment's etc but one example she quoted was when an Indian pensioner whom had just arrived in the country and was staying with HER daughter came to them and asked for help with getting disability benefit's, she said that they simply gave them for the indian pensioner even though she had never paid into our system and was not yet a citizen as it was easier just to help the indian woman as otherwise they had to face the race argument and accusations of discrimination as well as ream's of red tape.

I know this sound's awful but this is actually a true story and I feel Myrtle has been unfairly targeted because she wanted to come over this country which is after all her ANCESTRAL homeland and spend the last fragment of her life with her daughter whom is also her only relative as she has no relative's in South Africa, I also and god forgive me if I am wrong but I also believe the Home office which is staffed with a higher than national average percentage of non ethnic british employee's - because of "New Labours and Harriet Harman's" (And I am a traditional labour votor who hates the torys for there cruel policys) insane anti british racial promotion drive which was supposed to boost ethnic minority representation in government employment but which instead or deliberately actually worked to promoet discrimination against the British people - has actually deliberately discriminated against a White British lady trying to return to her ancestral homeland because she is White and of BRITISH descent, in fact I feel very, very strongly there is anti british racism at work behind the scenes by those whom have worked this case and suspect if you heard the name's of those whom have worked it at the home office you would find they were mainly non ethnic British and in many cases perhaps first generation immigrant's themselves and I wonder of the same people how many of them put entry applications through for those that Back hand them on there grape vine in there own original native country's.

The more I read this story the angrier I am getting at how one of OUR old lady's is being treated and how some even on this site regard her, she is not an immigrant, yes she was not born here but her parents most likely were and so she is a RETURNEE - ETHNIC BRITISH she has the moral and ethical right to come home that non ethnic British Immigrants do not have, she is from a Commonwealth nation which was a British colony and which once made massive revenue for the British empire and she has the right to be buried with her ancestor's and her Daughter HERE.

I feel our home office and immigration are unfairly treating our australian, south african, new zealand and canadian descendant's as well as those whom can prove british descent within the past two generation from anywhere else whom I feel have a moral, ethical and historical right to come to Britain, sometimes what was good for your parent's is not good for you, why should you have to pay for the mistake of the previous generation in a country that is not really your own, why can you not go home to your true family.

There was a time I would have hated to talk or type like this, it would have been against my nature and against my anti racist belief's, I would have fought and campaigned for minority's but now anti racism has actually become anti British and it is Racism but Racism that makes the British second class citizens in there own nation and that affect's there offspring from abroad when probably foreign home office workers decide if our own country's offspring can come home or not, after all she had not paid a back hander to one of them has she.