The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Family torn apart by civil war plead to be reunited
yemen: Mum and children now settled in Fife desperate for husband to visit
A Scottish mother has pleaded for her Yemeni husband to be allowed to visit his family in the UK after they fled the civil war.
Fearing for their lives, Louise Alakil left their home in Yemen with their two youngest children two years ago and now lives in Cupar.
Her husband of 29 years, Abdulwahab Alakil, an education minister in the Yemeni government, has been unable even to visit due to immigration rules.
Louise, 51, says daughters Miriam, 14, and Ayisha, 12, miss their father desperately, and her MP has stepped in to urge the UK Government to reassess their case urgently. She told The Herald: “I can see them suffering badly. They were so close to their father.”
Louise, originally from Linlithgow, and Abdulwahab, 55, met while studying at Napier in Edinburgh and after marrying in 1988, settled in Yemen.
In 2015, conflict began when Saudi Arabia-backed forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed with the Houthi movement, which controls the capital Sana’a.
A bombing campaign has killed 5,000 civilians, a quarter of them children.
Louise said: “When it began we were woken up at 2am to bombs dropping. The whole house was shaking. It was absolutely terrifying. We thought the world would be in uproar about innocent people being bombed but of course that didn’t happen and it went on and on.”
She and Abdulwahab made the painful decision to divide the family so Louise could take their daughters to Scotland until the bombing stopped. Two of their older sons remained with their father and their other two sons had already settled in Scotland.
They believed then the conflict would last only a few months.
Their children have British passports but Abdulwahab has a Yemeni passport and his application for a visitor visa was turned down by the UK Government.
Louise said their assets were tied up in property and she was not earning over the £18,600 required by the Government.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Applicants for visit visas must be able to demonstrate how they will support themselves during their visit to the UK and that they meet the requirements of immigration rules. Where there is insufficient evidence provided, applications will be refused.”