The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Grandmother fearing deportation to Ukraine and being torn from family
THREAT: Error on Visa application has left 69-year-old with ‘untold anxiety’
A Fife grandmother who is facing the threat of deportation at any minute has pinned her final hope on a review pledged by a government minister.
Valentyna Yakoleva, 69, has been told that unless she voluntarily leaves the Tayport home where she has helped raise her two beloved grandchildren for the last decade, she will be forcibly ejected and sent back to Ukraine.
An 11th-hour review of her case has now been secured after her plight was highlighted in Westminster
The widow has no family, home or income in the Ukraine and fears she will be wrenched from her only family, daughter Tanya Sukhodub, son-in-law Andriy and granddaughters Daria, 15, and Karina, 10.
She was arrested suddenly two years ago after her travel visa expired and her application for a family reunification visa was refused.
Valentyna spent two weeks in the immigration removal centre at Dungavel and is now living in fear of a knock at the door that will tear her away from the only life she knows.
Andriy said the whole family were terrified of what might happen.
“She has nobody else in the world except us,” he said.
If she is evicted she faces a five-year ban from the UK and if she goes willingly she can return for visits only after a year.
Fearing she would not survive life alone back in Ukraine, Andriy said: “She would have to start her life from scratch.
“The main issue, though, is that we wouldn’t be able to see each other and she is so attached to the children.”
Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for the Home Department Kevin Foster agreed to look at her case after it was raised in Westminster by North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain.
Mrs Chamberlain said Valentyna should be eligible for the visa but errors were made in her application.
She said: “This is a total breach of her human rights, causing untold anxiety and distress. It is clear the Home Office is not fit for purpose.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases. The UK only ever returns those who both the Home Office and the courts are satisfied do not need our protection and have no legal basis to remain in the UK.”