Immigration cops are deporting my wife of 30 years
William’s desperate plea for compassion after moving back from South Africa
AN ELDERLY Scots couple are set to be ripped apart after 30 years of marriage due to a Tory immigration crackdown.
William Meikle, 71, has begged immigration chiefs for compassion after they told partner Anna, 65, she is to be detained and removed from the UK.
The couple’s lives are being turned upside down – with Anna set to be imprisoned and thrown on a flight to Johannesburg at any moment.
The pair married in 1987 in Anna’s native South Africa but moved back to William’s Scottish hometown four years ago.
But their retirement has taken the worst possible turn as Home Office enforcers threaten to detain Anna before deporting her back to South Africa – where she would be homeless and destitute with no family to support her.
Anna said: “It is very stressful and frightening. I am just waiting to be dragged off and put on a flight. It is awful. I have nothing to go back to and I need my husband.
“I was an orphan and my adoptive parents are dead now so I have nothing in South Africa, my family are the Meikles. They have always been the people who were there for me.
“I would like nothing better than to get a wee job over here and just live happily. I love Scotland and I have met lots of lovely folk here, I just want it to be home.”
William said: “The situation is utterly unbearable. All we are asking is for a little bit of common sense and compassion but we have been through every appeal and tribunal and been refused at every turn.
“So the reality is we are just waiting for Anna to be deported. It could come at any time.
“We are just waiting for the axe to fall after 30 years together.”
The retired sales rep, from Falkirk, added: “We are both pensioners, we aren’t causing any trouble, we aren’t a burden on the state, we just want to live our lives in peace.
“Instead we are going through this absolute hell. The Home Office seem determined to throw an elderly woman into a very dangerous and uncertain future.
“Anna has nowhere to live in South Africa, no
chance of getting a job and would have virtually no income.
“If I was to go over with her, I would be in exactly the same position but with even less chance of a job at 71 years of age.
“The only option would be for me to stay here and try to send over some money. It is heartbreaking.”
The couple decided to settle back in Scotland four years ago after First Tech, the company they both worked for, collapsed leaving them without jobs or pensions.
But Anna has been told she has no right to remain in the UK because she entered the country on a temporary visa.
William, who lived in Johannesburg and Mpumalanga in South Africa for 40 years, added: “We lost everything after our employer collapsed in a huge scandal.
“I spent all my savings just surviving for 18 months before we moved back to Scotland.
“We came in with Anna on a visa for six months and I assumed that we would be able to extend that and eventually get her full citizenship quite easily given she is my wife.
“But what they are telling us is that she will have to go back to South Africa and apply from there for a spouse visa.
“To get that visa you need £60,000 in the bank and you need to earn £18,000, so the reality is Anna will never get back in if she is forced to leave.
“We have exhausted every level of appeal and tribunal now so the situation just seems hopeless.
“They have told us Anna has no right to be here, and we are now expecting some sort of deportation notice to come through the door any day.
“She is having to report to a police station every month and, meanwhile, we are trying to do whatever we can but there are no more options.”
Falkirk MP John McNally last night blasted emigration officials for their “appalling” treatment of the Meikles.
He said: “The minute I knew of the Meikles’ traumatic situation, my heart went out to them.
“To be treated so appallingly is bad enough, but to do so during their golden years when they should be able to purely focus on each other after almost 30 years of marriage, is shocking. It has impacted on their health, their peace of mind, and it has prevented them from making any future plans the way a husband and wife should.
“To potentially tear apart a law-abiding couple like this is senseless and frankly has resulted in a terrifying situation for William and Anna.
“They have my full support and I will continue doing everything in my power to help them stay together in Scotland where they belong.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “All applications are considered on their individual merits, including any exceptional or compassionate circumstances, and in line with the Immigration Rules.
“The decision to refuse Mrs Meikle’s application has been upheld in the Courts.
“We expect people with no legal basis to remain in the UK to leave the country voluntarily.
“Individuals who wish to settle in the UK should make the application from outside the UK.”
We are just waiting for the axe to fall after 30 years together WILLIAM MEIKLE