Ailing 92 year old Facing Forced Removal From UK

Myrtle Cothill is a frail 92-year-old South African lady. She is at risk of being removed by the Home Office to a country where she has nobody to look after her and nowhere to stay. Myrtle has been living with Mary Wills, her British 66-year-old daughter who is also a qualified carer, since her arrival in the UK in February 2014. I am Myrtle's barrister and I have launched this petition on behalf of her to call on the Home Office to grant Mrytle leave to remain in the UK.
Suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and macular degeneration causing sight loss, Myrtle cannot walk unaided, has a chronic cough, poor vision, is hard of hearing and is experiencing increasing confusion. She is unable to care or cook for herself and relies on her daughter Mary for emotional and physical support: Mary helps her mother with her personal care, housework, cooking and shopping.

Mary and her 61year old British husband David, cannot move to South Africa to look after her mother there as they have no right to live in South Africa. David is also ill and unable to travel, suffering from Parkinson’s disease and COPD which severely affects his mobility and breathing. Both David’s and Myrtle’s medical conditions are degenerative and likely to deteriorate further in the future. 
 
Like any good daughter and wife, Mary deeply loves her husband and her mother and just wants to take care of them.

However, the Home Office has refused Myrtle leave to remain in the UK and is expecting the 92-year-old to return to South Africa on her own. This would rip the family apart and leave them broken-hearted. The Courts have felt unable to overturn the Home Office decision, relying the stringent nature of the current Immigration Rules on adult dependent relatives (see below for detail).

“My mother just cannot live on her own,” says Mary, “and emotionally, to her as well as for myself, it would really tear strips out of our heart and probably would kill my mother (and maybe myself as well).”

The present immigration rule on adult dependant relatives introduced in 2012[1] makes it almost impossible for British citizens to bring their elderly parents to live with them in the UK in their declining years.

Those like Mary who want to help and do the right thing have to deal with the wedge this immigration rule drives between them. It breaks up families like Myrtle’s, Mary’s and David’s, leads to unspeakable heartache and undermines the very essence of family values.

We call on the Home Office and the Government to:

1)      Grant Myrtle Cothill leave to remain in the UK to live out what days she has left under the care of her daughter;

2)      Reverse the amendment of the immigration rule on adult dependant relatives which came into force in July 2012 radically changing the previous rule (which was in place for over 40yrs) which allowed British nationals and other settled persons (i.e. persons with indefinite leave to remain) to be joined by their parents/grandparents aged over 65yrs if they could be accommodated and financially supported by their children/grandchildren without reliance on the public purse.

3)      Reinstate the previous immigration rule on family reunion to enable others like Myrtle to be granted leave to remain in the UK.

Footnote [1] The new immigration rule only allows British citizens, and other (non-EU) settled persons, to be joined by relatives where the long-term care they require is either not available or not affordable in their country of residence, but privately payable by them in the UK – this means that the only family members who will be allowed to join their families in the UK will be those who live in countries where medical care is more expensive than in the UK or entirely non-existent.


Jan Doerfel started this petition with a single signature, and now has 52,302 supporters. Start a petition today to change something you care about.

https://www.change.org/p/the-government-ailing-92-year-old-facing-forced-removal-from-uk?recruiter=79510477&utm_campaign=signature_receipt_twitter_dialog&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition



Bloody inhuman!

mmm...the law of unintended consequences

let me tell you a story

there was once a political party which suffered agonise of "angst" and decided to "teach them nast R/W ers a lesson...so they invited the world and its dog to come here and live off our economy, from east and west they came,
some wante to work, some wanted the easy life and some wanted to blow us up...but still the angst filled dictators screamed BIGOT at little old ladies questioning te wisdom of it all, and proiudly declared their intent to "ram immigration down our throats,, even if it choked us..." and choked us it did...
As it happened a general election got in their way and inconvenienced their plans to saddle every family in britain with a pet foreigner.

This was NOT however the "rescue it should have been, becasue the evil that came first in this election had seen the fiscal advantage to its financial masters, with depressed wages and cheaper labour costs, so they continued the inward flood. However being the crafty bastards they are they KNEW they had to pander to the basest of their voter block so tghey passed certain laws, which whilst sounding good and looking great on paper actually did NOTHING to address the real problem, however tgheir rabid voter base was appeased...which was good enough....

hence laws like this

as I said the law of unintended consequences....

the lefts fault that such a law exists....because they wanted to ram immigration down everyones throat.

If labour hadnt opened the flood gates...this law would never have been promulgated...let alone passed

I will however sign the petition....since I think that law is iniquitous

Thanks Vic x

Paint her face BLACK and Sassy will take her in, assuming she can pay. lol

Oh a hex is definitely on it's way.   And he thinks I'm joking Vic!

The old girl has not been here very long and possibly not for much longer.
If she does not have medical insurance she could cost us a fortune.
We are giving £billions of OUR own money away to more scum than you can shake a stick at so we should give this white old dear a break.

I really dont think the fact she is white matters Stormee

I think this is in all fairness a reasonable case where common humanity should dictate the events, be she white black yellow or green....

as you say I doubt she is long for this world, and it would be singularly heartless to send her away on her own without the support of her family...

absolute laws are in general BAD laws...there always will be "the exception" so a little flexibility under these exceptional circumstances is I think justified.

Lord Foul wrote:I really dont think the fact she is white matters Stormee

I think this is in all fairness a reasonable case where common humanity should dictate the events, be she white black yellow or green....

as you say I doubt she is long for this world, and it would be singularly heartless to send her away on her own without the support of her family...

absolute laws are in general BAD laws...there always will be "the exception" so a little flexibility under these exceptional circumstances is I think justified.

There is a message/lesson in this post for Sassy on how to get your point across without being a nasty troll.

Oh you are so going to get my point.   Be assured of that.

I'm surprised nobody has commented about this "hex". It's the second time it's been mentioned.

I have seen "hex" and been awaiting someone to explain.

sassy wrote:Oh you are so going to get my point.   Be assured of that.

Will you 'blackball' me.

I don't need to, I'm Pagan.

She luvz me, she luvz me not, she luvz me, she luvz me not, she luvz me.

I'll sign

Thank you Eddie.  In June OH and I are probably moving in with my Dad to look after him, he's 94 next week.  If someone told me they were going to send him to another country I don't know what I would do.

A sick and frail 92-year-old widow threatened with deportation, says she is "overwhelmed" to be allowed to stay in Britain, after a public outcry saved her from being removed from her carers.

Myrtle Cothill feared she would be sent back to her native South Africa despite suffering from heart problems, losing her eyesight, being unable to walk unaided and having to be looked after by her daughter, Mary Wills, in Poole, Dorset.

She had been ordered to leave Britain and was even been booked on to a flight to Johannesburg in February, despite having no family to care for her there, The Press Association reports.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/03/06/deportation-myrtle-cothill-reversed_n_9393420.html?utm_hp_ref=uk


Good news