UK tells blind Nigerian pensioner to go home to India

A blind Nigerian pensioner who has lived in the UK for 26 years has been told by the Home Office she can safely “go home” to India.

Comfort*, 67, arrived in the UK in 2000, and shortly after suddenly went blind due to acute glaucoma.

After living here for 20 years, she was granted leave to remain under long residence rules. Those allowed to stay on this route have to renew their visa every 30 months for 10 years and after that can apply for indefinite leave to remain. Under the new settlement rules announced by Shabana Mahmood this week , it is likely Comfort will now have to keep renewing her visa for the next 20 years before she will finally, when she reaches her 80s, be eligible for indefinite leave to remain.

Due to her age and disability, lawyers at Refugee and Migrant Justice applied to the Home Office for her to be granted indefinite leave to remain now rather than having to wait two more decades before becoming eligible. There is a provision to fast-track indefinite leave to remain applications in exceptional circumstances.

However, the Home Office rejected this application, telling her in the first part of the letter that she could return to Nigeria because there are services there for blind people. But the refusal letter concluded: “Your circumstances are not so severe or lacking in potential treatment in India that it would warrant indefinite leave to remain in this case.”

Numerous migrants’ rights’ organisations have raised concerns about the increase in the period of time some will now have to wait for settlement here, after the home secretary’s announcement. For some, the amount of time they have to wait has increased sixfold.

According to freedom of information data obtained by Refugee and Migrant Justice, many people of pensionable age have applied for settlement but, due to their age, are likely to die before satisfying the new, more stringent Home Office wait times. One person on the Home Office data disclosure is a woman from Pakistan aged 103, who will not be eligible for settlement until she is 123 years old.

“In 2022, I got my permission to stay here based on long residence in the UK,” said Comfort. “I’m very disheartened that I may now need to wait nearly 20 years to get indefinite leave to remain.

“I have been living in this country for 26 years. I have found my home here and settled well. I have my friends, my church and do voluntary work. I’m a good citizen, not a law-breaker and am begging the Home Office to have mercy on me and grant me indefinite leave to remain now, rather than making me wait 20 more years.

Under the new settlement rules, it is likely Comfort will have to keep renewing her visa for the next 20 years before she is eligible for indefinite leave to remain when she is in her 80s. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

“I don’t know why the Home Office said I could go back to India. It’s a country I have never visited and have no connection with.”

Nick Beales, head of campaigning at Migrant and Refugee Justice, who is supporting Comfort, said: “This woman is blind, in her late 60s and has lived in the UK for a quarter of a century. She meets the rules to remain here and there is no public interest in making her continue to renew her visa.

“Rather than viewing these vulnerable people as human beings, the government is fixated on appearing tough. Shabana Mahmood’s plans to double settlement routes will clearly make these problems even worse, especially as her decision-makers cannot even differentiate between India and Nigeria.

“Government data shows that people over 80 are applying to enter these settlement routes. While it’s unlikely many of these people would survive a 10-year period, Mahmood has not explained what she hopes to achieve by making these octogenarians and older wait two decades before having settlement. The government should admit that their earned settlement model is cruel and counter-productive and scrap these plans once and for all.”

Home Office sources said that corrective action was being taken to re-issue an updated letter to the woman.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases. All applications for permission to stay in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits, in line with the immigration rules and based on the information and evidence provided by the applicant.”

* Name has been changed.

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