LONDON: A Syrian refugee has said the British Home Office has “broken her heart” after it moved to block her terminally ill mother from traveling to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met, it was reported on Sunday.
Ola Al-Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015 after the couple lost their baby in a bombing.
They were unable to take Al-Hamwi’s mother, Soaad Al-Shawa, with them when they escaped the conflict.
Now living in Glasgow with their three children, aged seven, five and one, Al-Hamwi and Amonajid were granted refugee status and applied to bring Al-Shawa, 57, to the UK under the refugee family reunion scheme — but their request was rejected, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Al-Shawa, who has only communicated with her grandchildren via video calls, was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last year.
In November, doctors in Syria gave her about six months to live. A second application for family reunion was submitted following her diagnosis, but was again rejected by the Home Office.
The family appealed the decision, and in April a judge at the first-tier tribunal of the immigration court ruled in their favor, citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life.
The family were overjoyed by the decision.
“My mum really perked up when she heard the news and started to eat more,” said Al-Hamwi. “All she wants to do before she dies is to see us and the kids.”
Plans were swiftly made for Al-Shawa’s neighbors to help her travel to neighboring Jordan or Lebanon, where Amonajid would meet her and accompany her to the UK.
Because Al-Hamwi and Amonajid are refugees, they are unable to return to Syria themselves to be with her.
However, on April 10, the Home Office submitted a request for permission to appeal the judge’s ruling to a higher court — a process that can take an average of eight months.
The news has left the family devastated.
“There isn’t much time, if we can get her here we will provide everything for her. When the Home Office asked for permission to appeal against the decision of the judge who said my mum could come here they didn’t think about how they are breaking my heart,” Al-Hamwi said.
“My message to the Home Office is, ‘Please help my mum to see us before she dies.’ We haven’t told my mum that the Home Office has asked to appeal against the decision for her to come to the UK,” she added.
The family’s solicitor, Usman Aslam, said: “We could feel the family’s relief when they won the appeal, then their horror that the Home Office have sought permission to appeal. We immediately sought an expedition of their permission application.
He continued: “I have written to the Home Office directly expressing my outrage. Whilst I fully respect their right to seek permission to appeal, it is regrettable they have chosen this case of a dying woman. We are hoping that the Home Office will show compassion and allow her to spend what little time she has left with her family.”
A Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: “It would be inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
