Heartless home office decision

[Alexthecamel]

Details here:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/dying-mans-desperate-plea-for-donor-brother-to-be-allowed-into-uk-to-save-his-life-a3261811.html

Please share and contact Helen Hayes to show your support.

[James Barber]

Clearly the obvious compassionate thing to do is allow the brother to visit ASAP.

But I also wonder why they don't ship the bone marrow overnight from Nigeria now?

That may be why the home office is resisting.

[IlonaM]

Yet another example of the Kafkaesque immigration system in this country. Sadly not the first time we have seen such a sickening decision. I hope the Minister comes to his senses in time to save Isaac's life.

Dulwich College are sponsoring Isaac's brother to come to the UK and paying for his flight once a visa is granted. They have been doing a great deal to support their employee at this vital time.

There was a very good segment on London Tonight (ITV) last night, followed by a piece about a charity set up to raise awareness of blood, organ, bone marrow and other forms of medical donation within the Black African, Black Caribbean or mixed race communities.

[IlonaM]

The British High Commission refused a visa on the basis that his brother is a rickshaw driver and, in their opinion, could not be relied upon to go home again after the treatment was completed. He has a family in Nigeria. This is a common response by the decision-makers and could be said to be a often-used key on their keyboard.

[Penguin68]

Officials are required to stick to rules set out for them (and often at least endorsed, if not debated and voted on, by Parliament) - it is senior politicians (government ministers) who can overturn these rules in specific cases - and most frequently do so. I would be very worried if individual officials were allowed to interpret rules willy-nilly. That is how corruption can readily enter the system. Although we can all see the reason why leave to enter should be granted in this case, for a specific and compassionate reasons I for one would be very worried if such decisions were in future to be devolved to officials. This is not, I believe Kafka-esqe (the reasons for the initial decision are clear and follow well published guidelines) but rather a good example of why laws designed for generalities will always have possible exceptions.

It should be remembered that there are many occasions when immigration law has been subverted (for instance marriages to confer citizenship which are legal but bogus). How quickly might convincing 'documents' be made available to would-be immigrants if such mercy dashes were put at the discretion of hard-pressed officials.

This one is clearly kosher - the next ones might not be, if such a loophole was put through the formal regulations regarding the granting of visas.

[IlonaM]

Penguin68, I have worked within the immigration and asylum system for all of my career. My experience of the decision-making process has been that is has been very Kafkaesque. Unfortunately, I am currently not in practice otherwise I would have offered to help Dulwich College pro bono. I have however given them contact details for people who may be able to help.

As for the argument that the hands of the decision-makers are tied by strict rules and laws, there is a long-standing and lawful ability for the decision-maker to exercise his/her discretion outside the Immigration Rules in certain circumstances. There are also policies outside the Rules which have not been made law, although many are transferred into law in time. Bogus marriages are not an example of bad decision-making or corruption, they are unlawful and carried out usually by criminal gangs.

[charlottep]

Not sure if it will help, but a petition has been set up:

https://www.change.org/p/home-office-help-a-dying-man-s-brother-enter-the-uk-to-be-his-donor-to-save-his-life?tk=5mcqBvNGz_wr7h4aHkubI2Qui9Kb0s0ZVsQOnb_8GVs&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt&utm_campaign=new_signature

[IlonaM]

Excellent news charlottep!

And for those who are minded to take direct action, here are the contact details for the James Brokenshire, the Immigration Minister's office [taken from his website]:

Immigration enquiries

020 7035 4848

Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF

ministerforimmigration@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

[Jeremy]

I think what IlonaM says makes sense, there needs to be some level of autonomy at a lower level to make decisions in extreme scenarios.

I'm not inclined to believe that the brother of a (presumably) honest, hard working and very sick man would be looking to take advantage of the situation.

But I am also wondering, as James pointed out, is it not possible for the bone marrow to be sent over - if the immigration dept are really so inflexible?

[Saffron]

Bone marrow possibly could be shipped to the UK, but this would risk the sample becoming degraded or contaminated in the process, which significantly increases the risk that the process will fail or lead to serious side effects. xx

[rendelharris]

Jeremy Wrote:

> But I am also wondering, as James pointed out, is

> it not possible for the bone marrow to be sent

> over - if the immigration dept are really so

> inflexible?

From what I can discover online, Nigeria is building a bone marrow donation centre but it's not finished yet, so donors currently have to go to South Africa, which presumably would have the same cost and visa implications.

Hopefully this will be sorted quickly; to those above saying rules is rules, well not really - each case, as the Home Office says, is considered on its individual merits, there's no hard and fast you need X amount of money etc. It appears in this case that the British High Commission official was suspicious of the disparity between Patrick's monthly earnings of ?68 and his having ?1500 to make the trip (and rightly so, there's a recognised racket of gangs providing the travel money upfront then making the recipient work illegally for them in the UK to pay off the debt and (ever ballooning) interest). Hopefully once Patrick provides the evidence of where his airfare is coming from the decision can be changed.

[Jeremy]

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hopefully once Patrick provides the evidence of where his airfare

> is coming from the decision can be changed.

If Dulwich College are offering the money, you'd think it would be a closed case...

[rendelharris]

Jeremy Wrote:

> If Dulwich College are offering the money, you'd

> think it would be a closed case...

Yes that's what I thought, it sounds as though either the documentation provided to the BHC in Nigeria omitted to mention it or someone didn't read it very thoroughly, hopefully with the publicity the decision can be looked at again and quickly reversed.

[PennyDreadful]

Have signed the petition. I don't generally have much time for Dulwich College, but credit to them for behaving decently in this case. Good luck to Isaac Aganozor and his brother.

[Otta]

Agreed Pennydreadful.

I can see P68's point about decision makers and agree that it would be a worry if any low pay grade officer had discretion. But it shouldn't need to go to ministerial level, there should be a transparent panel at managerial level within the immigration service.