Home Office urged to allow teenager’s grandmother to stay in UK for good
The Home Office is being urge to "do the right thing" and grant the grandmother of an orphaned boy permanent leave to remain in the UK so she can continue to care for the youngster.
Ketino Baikhadze, 61, is the kinship carer for 13-year-old grandson, Giorgi Kakava – who was last month granted the right to remain in the country indefinitely, a decade after arriving in Scotland.
Giorgi, now 13, was just three when he fled to Scotland from Georgia with his mother Sopio Baikhadze, who died in 2018.
Butwhilethehomeofficehas now told the schoolboy he can stay in Glasgow permanently, hisgrandmotherandguardian has only been given 30 months' leave to remain and could still be forced to return to Georgia when that expires.
Church of Scotland minister, Rev Brian Casey, has been lobbying on behalf of the family, insisted it would be a "travesty" if the grandmother and grandson were split up.
He spoke out after Labour, SNP, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPS signed a motion at Holyrood congratulating him and the members of Springburn Parish Church in Glasgow for their efforts.
Rev Casey said: "It is outrageous that his grandmother, who is his guardian and sole carer, has only been given leave to remain for 30 months and will have to go through this whole protracted process again when he is 15 and still a minor.
"We will continue pressing the Home Office to do the right thing and grant her permanent leave to the remain in the UK because it would be a travesty if they are split up."
The Holyrood motion, lodged by Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, also calls on the Home Office to extend permanent leave to remain Giorgi's grandmother.
Meanwhile SNP MSP Bob Doris insisted it was "unconscionable to even consider splitting Ketino from her grandson". The Maryhill and Springburn MSP added: "The Home Office has the power to
end this uncertainty now. Confirming Ketino's permanency now is the only compassionate and humane thing to do."
A Home Office spokeswoman
said: "Following a compelling case Mr Kakava has been granted settlement in the UK.
"His grandmother Ms Baikhadze has been granted 30
months leave to remain on a route to settlement of which she applied."