Page 65 - Phonebox Magazine July 2016

supported by the elderly grandmother, who has subsequently moved to eastern Ukraine to be cared for by her only surviving daughter, Iryna’s aunt, who herself has serious and escalating medical issues and struggles physically and nancially to look after her bedridden mother (who also has dementia), let alone a teenage girl. After complex and protracted negotiations with the Home Of ce, Iryna was nally given the clearance to come to the UK on a six month child visitor visa with English language study included. Terence and Heather travelled over to Ukraine in the hope of expediting the process. Iryna nally arrived in the UK with them in autumn 2014. Terence and Heather had to put Iryna through private college at the insistence of the Home Of ce and also had to cover all of her health costs as she is not entitled to free NHS care. Iryna was a model student and did really well with her English course. She was subsequently offered a place at Bodmin College by Cornwall Council and has absolutely excelled at her school work. Iryna intends one day to get the quali cations to become an international interpreter. She has also become a voluntary cadet with Devon and Cornwall Police.
As Iryna’s visa was due to expire in May 2015, and in the light of very serious revelations about her past and threats to her future mental and physical being (that cannot be detailed
here) Terence and Heather applied to the Home Of ce for ‘Leave to Remain’ in the UK. The Home Of ce then inexplicably refused the application saying that Iryna should be forcibly deported to Ukraine. They advised that Iryna did have a right of appeal and as such an appeal was lodged at the High Court within ve days. The Home Of ce also held on to her passport. The deceit and ineptitude of the Home Of ce over the past three and a half years has been simply mind boggling. They have broken virtually all of their own rules concerning vulnerable children and the pitiful amount of of cial correspondence has been littered with inaccuracies, deceit, lies and mistakes. Although a number of
Chernobyl Children have gone on to settle in the UK and have professional careers here in the past, HM Government changed its own rules on immigration in 2012 to appease the baying hordes of Daily Mail and Daily Express readers. Five months after submitting the appeal, Iryna received notice of her Hearing; astonishingly she would have to wait another seven months in a state of physical and mental limbo for that hearing!
So, on 30th August 2016, just a few weeks away, the family have been summoned to an Immigration Tribunal Hearing in Newport, Gwent, which will decide on Iryna’s fate. The tribunal will decide whether this wonderful and intelligent child can stay in a loving home at no cost to the British taxpayer or whether she will be forcibly put on a plane back to Kyiv, where she is likely to be put in an orphanage as there is literally nobody there to care for her. Many people have generously donated funds towards the legal fees of the family but what is urgently needed now is for people to sign the petition to the Home Of ce pleading Iryna’s case.
You can nd the online petition by visiting change.org and searching the name ‘Iryna’. Alternatively, a link to the petition is provided below. Please, please sign it if you haven’t already done so and thank you for reading this article. http://tinyurl.com/hn93573
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July 2016 | Phonebox Magazine 65