Misinterpretation of UK immigration laws hurts many
Published:Friday | November 27, 2020 | 12:05 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
The misinterpretation of United Kingdom (UK) immigration laws has resulted in too many persons making the wrong decisions and ending up being denied citizenship, laments immigration attorney Jennifer Housen.
Housen told The Gleaner on Tuesday that the terms ‘right of abode’ and ‘indefinite leave to remain’, or permanent residency, are often misunderstood and that she found that too many people have misconstrued both legal statements and have suffered for it.
The immigration lawyer said that the right of abode status gives a person the unrestricted right to enter and live in the UK and is made available to British citizens as well as some Commonwealth citizens with specific connections to the UK before 1983.
“This is where a lot of people get it wrong, and we see through the Windrush scandal how it can hurt them in the long run,” she said.
IMMIGRATION STATUS
Indefinite leave to remain, or permanent residency, is an immigration status granted to a person who does not hold the right of abode in the UK, but who has been admitted to the UK without any time limit on their stay and who is free to take up employment or engage in business or self-employment or study.
When indefinite leave is granted to persons outside the United Kingdom, it is known as indefinite leave to enter.
A person who has indefinite leave to remain, the right of abode or Irish citizenship has settled status if resident in the United Kingdom. He or she is eligible for public fund or benefits in the UK.
Indefinite leave is not a permanent status. It can lapse where the holder has stayed outside the United Kingdom for a continuous period of two years and one day, or more.
“Many people who have been disenfranchised as part of the Windrush scandal and threatened with deportation by the Home Office fall into this category,” Housen said.
There are at least 83 cases on record of persons wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office.
One such case, published in the UK-based Guardian newspaper on Sunday, captured the world’s attention.
It spoke of Jamaican Ken Morgan, a former teacher who was blocked for 25 years from returning to his home in England. His passport was wrongfully seized in 1994 upon attempting to leave the island back to the UK, after visiting Jamaica to attend the funeral of a relative.
He was then deemed ineligible for British citizenship because of the length of his absence from the UK.
Morgan, who migrated to England on a British passport in 1960, had lived and worked in the UK for more than 30 years until his 1994 visit.
He said the only reason he was out of the country that long was because he was barred by British officials from travelling to the UK.
He was forced to remain in Jamaica for 25 years until, according to the report, the Windrush scandal broke and he was offered a temporary visa allowing him to return to the UK.
A subsequent application for British citizenship upon his return to the UK in 2018 was denied on the grounds that he has been out of the country for far too long, having spent more than the 450 days in Jamaica.