THOUSANDS of people have signed a petition to prevent a South African family living in Scotland being torn apart by an immigration mix-up.
Josie Pasane, 25, a graduate of Dundee's Abertay University, has lived in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, with her mother, Catherine and sister Mammie, 22, since the family arrived in Britain seven years ago.
Three years later, the family decided t
o apply for permanent residence and both Ms Pasane's mother and sister paid the £500 fee to have their application processed. But Ms Pasane claims she was wrongly advised by immigration officials that she could wait until her initial visa expired in 2008.
Her application to remain in Britain was rejected in January and an appeal also failed. Now Ms Pasane is facing deportation – despite graduating with an honours degree in marketing and getting a job with a leading retail chain.
A distraught Ms Pasane, who had to give up her job as a sales assistant at H&M after being told she will have to leave the country, said yesterday: "My family ties are here. My mother and younger sister, who I am very close to, are in Scotland. I feel it is my home and it would be very devastating if I had to leave my mother and sister."
The community in Broughty Ferry has rallied behind the family. A petition with more than 4,000 signatures, calling for Ms Pasane to be given the right to remain in the UK, will today be handed to Liam Byrne, the minister of state for borders and immigration, by Stewart Hosie, the SNP MP for Dundee East.
Mr Hosie claimed the decision to deport Ms Pasane was "ridiculous" and completely at odds with the Scottish Government's Fresh Talent initiative designed to allow overseas students to stay and work in Scotland for two years after graduating.
He said: "When the government get it wrong, irrespective of people's general views on immigration, folk can see the natural injustice of people being threatened with deportation when they pose no threat and are in fact an asset to the community.
"We had the Fresh Talent initiative to allow overseas graduates to stay on in Scotland and work – a very sensible scheme to help boost the population and skills base in Scotland. And this seems to fly in the face of the attempts being made to keep skilled graduates in Scotland." He said residents were "putting public pressure on the minister to use his discretion and overturn what is a ridiculous decision".
A spokeswoman for the Borders and Immigration Agency said: "All applications for further leave to remain are thoroughly considered by expert case workers, taking into account all the individual circumstances.
"Where a person has been refused further leave to remain, there is a full right of appeal to the independent asylum and immigration tribunal. Applicants who do not meet the requirements for leave to remain in the UK will be expected to return home. This is an essential element of a fair and controlled immigration system."
The full article contains 514 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
