Updates on Zambrano? Hard line by Home Office.

[bobrussell]

The Zambrano case involved a ruling which determined that the primary carers of European Union – i.e. British- citizens born outside the European Union and subject to immigration control, should be granted a right of residence, including the right to work, in order to give meaningful effect to their dependent EU citizens’ European citizenship rights.

In essence this means that the carer of an EU dependent should be given residence if the alternative would be that the dependent would have to leave the EU.

A friend of my wife has been refused this residential status because the Home Office has decided that a 70 year old grandparent can act as the carer for the two young children! I have never seen a bigger load of nonsense from a government department.

The mother and children are living in the UK following an administrative review of the original visa application by the mother. Both parents were resident in Thailand (father British) until he was killed in a motor cycle accident.

The mother has no close family and the decision to bring the boys to the UK where there is family, seems the most logical one in the childrens best interest. They all arrived in April 2014 but as one of the early cases considered under Zambrano the Home Office seem to be taking a hard line. The options are for her to leave, with the two children or to appeal.

There is a petition at over 3000 names but as a fair number of British living in Thailand just might face a similar situation (especially with the mad manner of their driving!) I thought it might be worth making people aware of this hard line attitude!

I doubt I am allowed to post a link to the petition but if a moderator considers it acceptable please let me know.

To keep the wingers off the thread, she does work (actually so does the grandmother) and no benefits are being claimed beyond the usual ones for British children!

Edited February 10, 2015 by bobrussell

[Jay Sata]

The story has featured extensively in the UK press over the last week.

THOUSANDS of people have backed a widowed mothers campaign to stay in the UK with her two young children after the Home Office decided she should be deported.

Although both of Om Gorrys children 10-year-old James and four-year-old Emily are UK citizens and hold British passports, Mrs Gorry has had her application to remain in the country rejected. They go to school in New Milton.

Her husband Alan, who was British, died in a motorcycle accident in 2011 at the age of just 36, just months after Mrs Gorry lost both her mother and father to cancer.

Helen Thompson, a family member and friend who has launched an online petition to help Mrs Gorry, said: This left Om on her own in Thailand with two young children who are both British/EU citizens.

After rejecting an initial applica-tion for Om and her children to return to the UK which was a very costly and upsetting experience we requested an administrative review and were delighted to receive the news that the Home Office had awarded Om with an EEA family visa which allowed her and her children to live in the UK with her mother-in-law Pat Gorry.

Since arriving in the UK in April 2014 the family have settled in very well, both children started school and are loving their life in the UK with their English family life was just starting to look positive again.

Source http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/newforest/11777833.___Let_mum_stay_in_the_UK________thousands_back_campaign_to_stop_widow_being_deported/

Edited February 11, 2015 by Jay Sata

[bobrussell]

Beat me to it!

Om is a friend of a friend of my wife! I think it is very worrying especially for a lot of British residents in Thailand that the Home Office consider it acceptable for two young children to remain in the UK with a 70 year old carer whilst the mother is told to leave the UK.

I have suspicions that a better choice of visa application (under Zambrano) might have yielded a more suitable result. The scary thing is the idea that someone would feel it is appropriate to make a mother leave her children in the care of a grandparent in this situation.

They have been helpful in providing links to an charity that will help her buy tickets, get to the airport and make sure she goes!

I don't believe she will actually be deported but they do have her passport waiting for her to go home.

Om and husband made the mistake/misunderstood the 2 year absence rule for ILR. If anyone has doubts that this will be enforced then think again!

For those living in Thailand may I suggest you drive really carefully because the UK authorities will not treat a widow(er) sympathetically it seems!

Perhaps taking a minute or two to sign the petition would be appreciated! Thanks!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2945844/Widowed-Thai-mother-deported-forced-leave-children-British-husband-killed-car-crash.html

Edited February 11, 2015 by bobrussell

[Jay Sata]

She needs to get a lawyer and appeal.

The publicity and petition will get her nowhere.

Not sure if she qualifies for legal aid but the kids must do through a proxy?

[bobrussell]

She has a lawyer and it is very silly to have go to appeal when EU law makes it perfectly clear that she should be granted residence on the grounds of being the primary carer of the two children. It is someone at the Home Office that has decided it is OK for the children to live with the grandmother and send the mother home. As far as I am aware the family is having to fund this, not legal aid.

Even if it is tax payers money and legal aid this seems a complete waste of money. Some bureaucrat has decided that it is acceptable under immigration law for British citizens to be deprived of the right to be cared for by the only surviving parent. Who in their right mind can consider this right?

How many thousands of pounds need to be wasted before someone comes to their senses? As a tax payer I can think of a lot better ways to spend money.

Under immigration law the best interests of the child must be 'a primary consideration'. The whole thing would be laughable if it was not so serious!

[7by7]

My sympathies go out to Om and her children.

Older members may remember that a few years ago a friend of my wife's applied to remain in the UK under the Zambrano ruling after her British husband abandoned her while she was pregnant with his child and before she had ILR (different to Om's case, I know).

Her first application was refused as she only supplied her son's short form birth certificate and the Home Office said this did not prove the father, and therefore her son, was British.

It took a long time, but she was eventually granted residence under this ruling, with the help of an immigration lawyer she was put into contact with via the CAB.

I hope that Om will receive proper justice and be allowed to remain in the UK with her children.

[Tony M]

Coincidentally, these figures were published today in response to a Freedom of Information request :

The number of EEA Zambrano Derivative cases granted and the decision dispatched from 1 March 2014 to 30 September 2014 where the applicant region is in England or Wales.

Granted 105

[Tony M]

And this :

Applications for EEA Residence Cards made between 01-06-2013 and 30-09-2014, split by initial decision

Granted Refused Rejected Other Pending Total

EEA - Zambrano 35 625 105 50 30 840

EEA - Zambrano - Direct Family Member 90 1045 110 125 30 1390

EEA - Zambrano - Extended Family Member - 330 20 15 5 370

EEA - Zambrano - Spouse/Civil Partner - 40 5 5 - 50

[7by7]

Interesting figures, Tony.

Shame the layout is ruined by that bloody lingerie advert!

[Tony M]

I don't get any ads. I have a blocker !

[moobie]

#1. Bob, I'm curious as to how the mother of these children is working. In the UK National press when I read the story it mentions that she needed to get "legal" in order to work and provide for the bairns. So I guess if she is doing so illegally then this will be a black mark against her?

(Don't forget folks, it's an election year and immigration is a hot topic. Up here in the North East we have just seen a Nigerian Asylum seeker (of some years) and her British born son "sent back" and this was protested by a petition of at least 10,000 as I remember.)

#9. 7by7 - It's a financial ad on mine....just saying! ;->

[bobrussell]

Not sure that she is working at the moment but she has not been here illegally at any stage. She had ILR which lapsed after the whole family moved back to Thailand for more than two years. She did get permission (at tribunal stage) to return to the UK with the children after becoming widowed.

I am not totally familiar with the details of her permission to be in the UK as this is a friend of a friend of my wife. They did spend some time over the summer playing in our swimming pool though! While appeals are being considered she has permission to remain. As I understand it the family are supporting themselves.

The Zambrano figures from TonyM are depressing as they suggest the Home Office is playing hardball!

Was the British born son of the asylum seeker a British Citizen, I wonder? If so this is a total disgrace and shameful. Om is a widow of a British Citizen with two young children, has had ILR but the Home Office have in reality just changed their minds about her being allowed to remain in the UK.

If the UKVI put half the effort into kicking out illegal immigrants as they do with these apparently easy targets then much of the immigration issue would go away! I doubt the mother would be able to support herself and children adequately if they are forced to leave the UK. If the children were to remain in the care of the grandmother what happens when she becomes ill or just older? When the youngest is in her teens the grandmother will be in her eighties!