Close X
Saturday, January 11, 2025
ADVT 
International

Indian Woman Suffering From Rare Disease Fights Deportation From UK

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 May, 2019 08:09 PM

    A 31-year-old Indian woman has been threatened with deportation by UK Home Office officials despite being in a coma after having a major operation.


    Bhavani Espathi, 31, who was in a vegetative state for a week and a half after undergoing the operation, received a letter stating that her application for leave to remain had been refused and that she was liable to be forcibly removed, the Independent reported on Monday.


    The UK Home Office has been accused of being "cruel and insensitive" after the move. Lawyers and politicians said the case demonstrated how the UK immigration rules were permitting the government to "send people to their death abroad" as part of the hostile environment.


    Espathi's fiance, Martin Mangler, 33, appealed against the decision while she was still unconscious, providing medical letters from her doctors stating that her life would be at risk if she travelled.


    But the Home Office said that while the medical treatment she was receiving was "unlikely" to be available to the same standard in India, this did not entitle her to remain in the UK - and that she could receive "palliative care" in her home country if the appropriate treatment wasn't available there, the daily reported.


    Espathi, who came to the UK on a study visa in 2010 and proceeded to work in the arts industry before she fell ill with Crohn's disease -- a digestive tract disorder -- said she would be "risking her life" if she had to leave the country. She has launched an online campaign to seek support for her case.


    "I thought there was no way they could dispute my application. I wasn't expecting them to say that 'even if the drugs aren't available then you could receive palliative care'."


    "I'm trying to be rational. I don't think they would put me on a plane if they actually saw me. I have tubes all over me. But then I also read stories about them coming to get people with no time to get legal representation," she said.


    Espathi had initially been living in Britain on student and work visas, but when she fell ill she reapplied under human rights medical grounds. Her application was refused in September 2018 while she was unconscious in hospital and her appeal was refused two months later.


    She had to be admitted to hospital again in April due to complications with her bowel. She currently relies on a drip, has a bag attached to her stomach and is waiting to undergo further surgery in the summer.


    Chai Patel, legal director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said the Home Office's decision to issue Espathi a removal order when she was in a coma was "inhumane and cruel", but "not surprising from a department where officials are trained in how to reject human rights claims".

    MORE International ARTICLES

    US Drug Czar Uttam Dhillon Welcomes El Chapo's Conviction

    Guzman, 61, was found guilty on all 10 counts at his high-profile drug-trafficking trial at a federal court in New York on Tuesday.

    US Drug Czar Uttam Dhillon Welcomes El Chapo's Conviction

    ‘America Land Of Opportunities Where Failure Not Stigma’

    ‘America Land Of Opportunities Where Failure Not Stigma’
    America is a land of opportunities where failure is considered not as a stigma but a path to success, a top Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist from the Silicon Valley told a group of newly-naturalised US citizens.

    ‘America Land Of Opportunities Where Failure Not Stigma’

    UK To Debate Jallianwala Bagh Massacre In House Of Lords

    Indian-origin peers in the House of Lords have initiated a “historic” debate on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919 during the British Raj, to be held next Tuesday.

    UK To Debate Jallianwala Bagh Massacre In House Of Lords

    British Islamic State Schoolgirl Shamima Begum 'Wants To Return Home'

    One of the three schoolgirls who left the UK in 2015 to join the Islamic State terror group has said that she has no regrets despite seeing "beheaded heads" in bins, but wishes to return to her home.

    British Islamic State Schoolgirl Shamima Begum 'Wants To Return Home'

    Harrison Ford Blasts Trump, Other World Leaders Over Climate Change Threat

    All of us, whether rich or poor, powerful or powerless, will suffer the effects of climate change and ecosystem destruction as we’re faced with the greatest moral crisis of our time

    Harrison Ford Blasts Trump, Other World Leaders Over Climate Change Threat

    Indian-Origin Man Imtiaz Patel In UK Jailed For Trying To Rob Store Wearing Burqa

    Imtiaz Patel, 42, had pleaded guilty to the knife-point robbery and possession of a bladed weapon. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment for the robbery and a concurrent nine-month imprisonment for possession of the weapon at Leicester Crown Court on Monday.

    Indian-Origin Man Imtiaz Patel In UK Jailed For Trying To Rob Store Wearing Burqa