Iraqi-born interpreter tells of being told he can keep his UK

ACARDIFF man who worked as an interpreter for the Home Office has won his fight to keep his UK passport after months of a living “nightmare”.

Iraqi-born Sarbast Hussain, 59, was living in dread that his wife and seven-year-old daughter would be deported.

His family’s world had been plunged into chaos last year when he attempted to renew his passport and was instead referred to UK Visas and Immigration, with the prospect that he could lose his naturalised status.

Mr Hussain, 59, said his family were in a living “nightmare”.

He gained a British passport after fleeing Saddam Hussein’s forces and finding refuge in the UK in 1989.

He built a successful career as a lecturer and interpreter for the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police before moving to Iraqi Kurdistan a decade ago to work on structural engineering projects.

Everything changed when he returned to the UK in August to renew his passport.

Officials spotted a discrepancy between his birth dates on his Iraqi and British passports. Despite a ready explanation, his case was passed on to UK Visas and Immigration and a chapter of uncertainty and anxiety began.

When fighting broke out between Kurdish and Iraqi forces in September in the wake of the Kurds’ vote for independence he encouraged his family to join him. He said: “I told my wife it’s going to be a couple of weeks – take it as holiday, come with the kids... I thought I would be saving them from this turmoil.”

But months passed. His wife, Paiman, lost her job and, as he put it, his “businesses have been dismantled one by one”.

They lived on savings in rented a home in Pontprennau, but a new worry surfaced as more time passed. His wife had entered on a visitor’s visa and was not allowed to stay in the UK past May 15.

Would the family be separated? They won the support of more than 50 MPs from across Wales and England as concern mounted for the welfare of Mr Hussain’s son, Dylan, and daughter, Hanasa. Cardiff North MP Anna McMorrin lobbied ministers and asked questions in parliament.

On Tuesday night a Home Office spokeswoman said his case was being examined “as a matter of urgency”. And on Wednesday he received a phone call that has transformed the life of this family.

Mr Hussain said: “A guy very politely said, ‘This is the Passport Office in Glasgow. We have finished your passport; it is ready – where shall we send it to?’”

Two hours later he was phoned again, told his passport is in the post, and given an apology for the delay.

Describing their relief, he said: “My wife wouldn’t believe me when I told her. Next week my wife would have become illegal in this country.”

A primary challenge is deciding how to rebuild their lives. He said: “I never, never thought my life would be dismantled in this way, so immaculately dismantled so I have to pick the pieces up together one by one.”

Ms McMorrin said: “I am delighted that Mr Hussain will now receive his British passport, and his wife and daughter will no longer be separated from him and their son.

“But I can’t stress enough how appallingly he’s been treated by the Home Office. Only weeks ago they replied to me saying that they there were no ‘timescales for this investigation to be concluded’, because they did not care.

“It’s been awful to witness the deterioration in Mr Hussain and his wife between them first coming to see me in December, and my advice surgery last Friday. The distress and anguish they’ve experienced is visi-