What insanity to threaten to deport a law abiding student who’s won a place at Oxford when we fail to turf out foreign criminals

Think of all the foreign criminals, illegal immigrants and other undesirable types who are allowed to stay in Britain. And then consider the case of Brian White.

he is a 21-year-old black Zimbabwean who has been awarded a place to read chemistry at Oxford University having got three A*s and an A in triple science and maths at A-level. he now faces deportation from this country.

This is not because he has a criminal record or has done anything wrong. On the contrary, as well as being highly intelligent, Brian White is evidently a very pleasant young man who would be an adornment to Oxford.

Look at what he has achieved against the odds. Abandoned as a baby, he grew up in an orphanage in Zimbabwe, a poor country (largely thanks to the depredations of its nonagenarian tyrant, Robert Mugabe) where most orphanages, we may be sure, are pretty grim places.

Fortunately for him, when he was about 12 he was fostered by Britishborn Peter White and his African wife, Thoko. he was soon adopted, and when the Whites and their two biological sons came to Britain, 15- year-old Brian accompanied them.

he is obviously an exceptional young man who, having been dealt a very bad hand of cards by life, has made the most of his opportunities. Try telling that to the home Office, which in 2014 turned down his application for naturalisation because he did not qualify under immigration rules.

in April, Brian applied to remain under a different category so that he could take up his place at Oxford this autumn. You may think that, in the circumstances, the home Office would have given him a quick decision, but it hasn’t. The fear is that he may be packed off to Zimbabwe, where he no longer knows anyone.

Of course, i realise that any immigration system has to have a set of rules. But a set of rules which can countenance the deportation of a talented, hard-working young man who has overcome such adversity should be torn into shreds.

The extraordinary thing is that the same authorities which look upon Brian White with such disfavour take a very much more relaxed and indulgent attitude towards many foreign-born criminals.

AccORdingto statistics surreptitiously released by the home Office recently, five foreign criminals a day are being freed from British jails on to our streets instead of being immediately booted out of the country.

in total, there are 5,728 criminals born abroad living in Britain and due for deportation. nearly a third — 1,870 — have been on the loose for more than five years. We may be certain that some of them will never leave.

This is my question. What kind of system do we have that threatens to deport a brilliant, law-abiding and apparently decent young man but fails to turf out hundreds of foreignborn criminals who have never done this country an ounce of good, and don’t intend to?

The answer, i submit, is that it is easy for the home Office to target people such as Brian White who diligently play by the rules, filling in forms and tuning up for interviews in collar and tie. how much more problematic, and how unrewarding, to chase down elusive rogues who haven’t the remotest wish to co- operate with the authorities.

There have been numerous other instances of the home Office picking on blameless individuals who, in the eyes of any reasonable observer, would seem to have every right to continue living here.

One such case is a 21-yearold joiner called Shane Ridge who was born and raised in Britain, and has British parents and grandparents. Yet the powers-that-be want to deport him. Why? his mother, who was born in Australia to British parents during a holiday, holds dual citizenship.

What utter insanity, and what cruelty, to disrupt the life of a young man who would seem to have as much right to call himself British as anyone living on the planet. if the rules say he should be removed, they should be changed.

Earlier this year, irene clennell, who lived in the Uk for some 30 years after arriving from Singapore, was forcibly sent back. never mind that she has been married to a British man for 27 years, and has two British children and a British granddaughter.

her ‘mistake’ had been to spend time nursing her parents in Singapore, who are now dead. On returning to Britain, she was told that, as she couldn’t prove annual earnings of at least £18,600, she would have to leave. it didn’t cut any ice that she had never claimed welfare benefits here, or that her husband had worked in this country his entire adult life.

Another shameful case concerned Jason and christy Zielsdorf, who ran a small, and doubtless invaluable, village shop in the Scottish highlands, where they had lived for nine years. After a long and fruitless battle with the home Office, they closed their shop in April and left for canada to avoid deportation.

WhATwould this couple have said, i wonder, if they had read a story a couple of months later about two Romanian fugitives who had slipped into Britain but couldn’t be sent back — so the high court ruled — because Romanian prison cells swere judged to be too cramped.

The two gentlemen concerned are now being detained at her Majesty’s pleasure in rather agreeable open prisons. i have no doubt that on their release they will be free to pursue their livelihoods on British soil.

Some anomalies are bound to exist in any system. But there is a flabbergasting contrast between the authorities’ virtual persecution of irreproachable individuals who have rightfully lived here for many years, and their indulgence of palpable scoundrels.

it is not just a question of meanness — and the meanness runs very deep in the case of the orphan Brian White. it is also plain stupid to throw out people who are making a contribution to society, or seem likely to do so.

Surely it should be obvious to even the most bone-headed home Office official that the young Zimbabwean may well achieve great things in his life, and it would be to the country’s benefit if he were able to accomplish them here rather than elsewhere.

We need no less than an overhaul of our immigration system so that, wherever practicable, talented, industrious and law-abiding candidates — the more so if they already live here — should be preferred over idle, feckless and dishonest chancers. is that really such a preposterous thing to ask?

it so happens that after Brexit this country will be in the perfect position to apply such standards since at long last we will be in complete control of our own borders, and free to devise such immigration rules as suit us.

We will finally be able to place a premium on those who seem likely to benefit the economy, and at the same time show sympathy and understanding for the deserving. it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

My only worry is that the new arrangements will be overseen by notoriously ham- fisted home Office officials. Left to their clumsy devices, potential nobel Prize winners will probably be deported while rogues and rascals continue to be welcomed to our shores.