Home Office won’t allow boy with no ears into
to see wee Alieu and was planning to operate on him.”
Frank insists the charity followed every procedure on the visa application and were stunned to discover it had been knocked back.
Mohammed, who was born deaf, was due to travel to Scotland with his deputy head teacher Mary Ann Allen and Project Gambia volunteer Alasan Canara, with all three set to be surprise guests of honour at the charity’s summer ball.
They were due to stay with Frank’s project partner, Paul Lafferty, at his home in Bellshill during their visit. Frank, 57, from Mossend, Lanarkshire said: “Everything was in place and we never thought there would be any issues with visas.
“We followed every procedure to the letter and spent a month in Gambia working on the application.
“They knocked us back because we never told them the name of the surgeon and because we didn’t mention the hospital that the operation was to be performed in – but we were never asked to provide that information.
“Why refuse visa applications with stipulations we as a charity were never asked to adhere to? We answered every question asked of us.
“These questions were never posed and if they were, we would have answered them. To refuse the visa application on those grounds is a joke.
“We just wanted to help give a child the chance to hear again but it’s being made so difficult.
“We promised wee Alieu we would get him sorted and we keep our promises – always.”
Dr Iyer was due to operate on the youngster in the coming weeks and planned to insert an implant which would restore his hearing.
He said: “We have put a lot of effort into confirming his suitability for a hearing aid as he has no ear canal.
“The next step would be a boneanchored hearing aid and that’s what I was planning to do when he arrived in Scotland.
“I am very sad and frustrated to hear that he won’t be able to make the trip as a lot of people have put in effort.”
Frank, along with Paul, Charlie Docherty and Lynne Hamilton Gillies, set up the project seven years ago to