UK-woman threatened with deportation after living and working here for 50 years
 

Paulette Wilson moved to the UK in 1968, and worked and raised her daughter here. Recently she was suddenly taken to Yarl’s Wood detention centre and almost forced on to a plane to Jamaica. She was asked for papers to prove she had a right to be here, yet in 1968 it was quite legal for her to come here from Jamaica, in fact, we invited people from the West Indies to our country to do the jobs we wouldn't do. Now rules about immigration entry are being applied retrospectively and the UKBA feel vindicated about putting a woman in her 60s into prison for working here for 34 odd years?

"Paulette Wilson had been in Britain for 50 years when she received a letter informing her that she was an illegal immigrant and was going to be removed and sent back to Jamaica, the country she left when she was 10 and has never visited since.

"Last month, she spent a week at Yarl’s Wood detention centre before being sent to the immigration removal centre at Heathrow, where detainees are taken just before they are flown out of the country. It was only a last-minute intervention from her MP and a local charity that prevented a forced removal. She has since been allowed to return home, but will have to report again to the Home Office in early December and is still worried about the possibility of renewed attempts to remove her.

"The experience of being detained and threatened with deportation to a country she has no links with has been profoundly upsetting for Paulette, a grandmother and former cook, who has paid national insurance contributions for 34 years and can prove a long history of working and paying taxes in this country.

"Paulette, 61, arrived in the UK in 1968, went to primary and secondary school in Britain, raised her daughter, Natalie, here and has helped to bring up her granddaughter. For a while, she worked in the House of Commons restaurant overlooking the Thames, serving meals to MPs and parliamentary security staff. More recently, she has volunteered at her local church, making weekly meals for homeless people.

"She has been left furious and distraught by this sudden Home Office decision to categorise her as an illegal immigrant. The week of detention in Yarl’s Wood was the worst experience of her life."

Welcome to the New England.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ars-in-britain

how bad of them to do that! makes me sick in the stomach!

She had a good run while it lasted.

Horrendous:fist:
If she has been living here since childhood and contributing to society then this is really poor behaviour of the authorities.
Hopefully common sense will prevail and she will be told she is welcome here, as soon as possible.

What is wrong with Jamaica all of a sudden?

Did she leave the UK of her own free will or did Jamaica?

im sure there is a bit more to this "story"

Oh I'm sure you believe that LT

I would think that this is some kind of administration error.Sometimes when technology is involved stupid stuff happens.Computers don’t do common sense.
I’m all for strict immigration and sending illegals back but not for somebody who came legally that long ago and built a life.
Anybody who came here legally should still be considered legal.

In a statement, the Home Office said there had been on-going discussions with Ms Wilson over the past three years about how she could regularise her immigration status, including contact with her MP.

"These discussions did not lead to her making an application or providing the necessary evidence to show a lawful right to remain.

"However Ms Wilson has now submitted an application last month and we are looking into her case to help regularise her immigration status."

source BBC


So nothing much to see here

Never been but i watched a series once called Jamaica ER.It was a hospital in Kingston i think.
Put me off going to Jamaica that’s for sure.
Queues of gunshot injuries.One guy had to get his head drilled into without being put to sleep.

Oh I think there's a lot to see here. How many people has this happened or is happening to? Not everyone has the audacity to go to the papers.

Old? Mentally ill? disabled? homeless? poor?..... leave or die please.

I guess it depends on how many other people don't bother to make an application or provide evidence for years on end.

I know in your world everything seems simple and when people lose out or nearly get deported, its simply because they didn't bother to do their due diligence. What a selfish thought :shrug: Maybe she's like 8 million other Brits who can't read or write?

Discussions were going on for more than long enough for her to say "I can't read or write btw."

But in your world everyone needs everything done for them, there seems to be no personal responsibility, it says she has kids so maybe they could have assisted her if she was unable to read her write, she helps out in the church could she not have asked one of them. I doubt she will miss out on her free bus pass or OAP when it comes due, I don't agree with what was done here and personally think it is terrible that someone who has been here for 50 years would be treated in this way, someone along the way let the computer do the thinking and commonsense went out the window, just another person in the public sector who couldn't be arsed to do their job properly.

Wait a minute she has lived and worked here for 50yrs and only after paying in and she's due her pension they say she can't be here?...

Do you think that the private sector could run anything better... Give me one example of where that has actually happened, just one.

such a non story

honestly no wonder the Guardian is on its arse

Not at all, I raised my kids to be independent and take responsibility for their own actions but I also raised them with the understanding that empathy and kindness costs nothing.

One in five adults in the UK can't read or write. One in twenty adults in the UK can only read and write up to a 5 year olds standard. Most adults who can't read or write live in shame and rarely ask for help.

We don't know if she had reading or writing problems. Perhaps she did just ignore the letters; perhaps she was more than capable of reading those letters or filling in those application forms but didn't bother. We don't know but because we don't know, we shouldn't presume that she and others just 'can't be bothered'.

Losers. I was writing to a 5 year olds standard by the time I was 20. You dont see me bragging about it.

LT you don't understand. The evil racist government wants to fling her from the country so they don't have to pay her pension - the fact she didn't do her paperwork to stay here is just a coincidence.

they still manage to get the lottery on tho I bet


:idc:

mocking the gossip tabloids now are we, they are just providing us with news, without the tabloids we would know nothing ;)

Personal responsibility in that she had been asked to make an application and she didn't despite 3 years of consultation

I never claimed the private sector could do it any better, but this Department is run by the public sector