An eight-year-old girl left stranded in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa has been barred from coming to Britain to meet her parents.
The Guardian reported on the case of Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown after the storm. Her mother Kerryon Bigby, a caregiver, moved from Jamaica in April 2023 to live with Lati-Yana’s British father, Jerome Hardy, a telecommunications worker, leaving the care of her daughter with her grandmother.
The couple married this year and applied in June, after saving up the £4,000 visa application fee to join Lati-Yana. After Hurricane Melissa, the couple urged the Home Office to expedite their visa decision, saying “an urgent situation had become an emergency”.
The storm destroyed the home in Cash Hill, Hanover, where Lati-Yana was living with her grandmother, whom Bigby said was no longer physically able to care for her, which was badly damaged by the storm.
UNICEF has launched an appeal to help an estimated 1.6 million children in the region get access to essentials like clean water, education and nutrition supplies.
Home Office officials have now refused the visa application.
In their refusal letter to Lati-Yana, Home Office officials said: “While it is acknowledged that the effects of the natural disaster have significantly affected you and the wider population of Jamaica, I am also aware that you live with family members. The evidence stating that your grandmother is incapable of providing care has not been demonstrated. It has therefore not been demonstrated that you cannot be cared for by relatives in the country in which you currently reside.”
Lati-Yana’s parents said they were disappointed by the decision and would appeal it. However, his lawyer said the appeals backlog of 106,000 cases meant the case could take up to two years to be heard.
Bigby said: “As her mother, being separated from my daughter is incredibly painful. I don’t sleep at night knowing she is so far away and not getting the care and support that every child needs. The emotional impact on both of us is significant. Being reunited with my daughter is not just a wish, it is a necessity for her development and my ability to fulfill my responsibilities as her mother. I am so distressed, I can neither eat nor “Nor can I sleep.”
K Naga Kandia of MTC Solicitors, representing the family, said the Home Office is taking a strict stance on such cases.
He said, “The Home Office’s approach shows a worrying lack of compassion and understanding for a vulnerable young girl who is currently separated from her parents.”
Kandia urged the Home Office to immediately reconsider its decision, “ensuring that Lati-Yana’s welfare and best interests are appropriately protected”. He said the Home Office has a statutory duty to have the best interests of the child as the primary consideration.
Approximately half of the visa fee is paid to the Home Office and the other half is an NHS surcharge to cover any healthcare costs Lati-Yana may incur in the future. If the visa application is rejected the surcharge is refunded, but not the remainder. The couple will have to pay several thousand pounds more for their appeal.
A Home Office spokesman said, “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with immigration rules.”
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