Families face being torn apart... by red tape
A YOUNG mother offered a seat on an emergency flight home to Britain was told she must leave her three-yearold son behind – because he has a Chinese passport.
Natalie Francis, 31, and Jamie represent just one of the British families in China who now fear they will be split up amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Another parent, Jeff Siddle, was left facing his ‘worst nightmare’ when officials said he and his daughter, nine, could fly home but his wife cannot.
Chinese bureaucracy has been blamed for their plight, because Beijing does not recognise dual nationals and will not allow anyone travelling on a Chinese passport to leave regions in lockdown.
Mrs Francis works as an English teacher in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began. She is desperately worried because her son developed pneumonia in 201 , and she fears this means he will be more vulnerable to the virus.
Jamie is a British citizen but has a Chinese passport, meaning authorities in Wuhan will treat him as Chinese.
Mrs Francis said she and her husband agreed Jamie should go back to Britain, but were then told by the Foreign Office in a phone call that he would not be allowed to board the flight. She said: ‘I won’t leave without my son.’ Mrs Francis, who is from York, said she and Jamie had not been outside for days because they feared infection.
‘The atmosphere is very scary and everything is becoming overwhelming,’ she said.
Mr Siddle’s wife Sindy was barred from joining the flight because she is a Chinese citizen, although she is married to a Briton and they have a child together. Mr Siddle, 54, said their daughter Jasmine was ‘devastated’ at the prospect of being separated from her mother.
The family from Prudhoe in Northumberland flew to Hubei province on January 15 to spend Chinese New Year with Mrs Siddle’s family, before warnings emerged about the spread of coronavirus. They have made the difficult decision
that Jasmine and her father will travel home, while Mrs Siddle, 42, will stay with relatives until travel restrictions are lifted. She has held a UK permanent residency visa since 2008.
Mr Siddle, a software engineer, said: ‘We basically have to have a nine-year-old child separated from their mother. It was a terrible decision [to have to make].’ The Foreign Office said it was lobbying the Chinese authorities over dependants who had been refused permission to leave with their families.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We have raised this as a matter of urgency with the Chinese authorities.’