The former refugee who took on the Home Office … AND WON!
A FORMER Syrian refugee in Scotland has won her battle to be reunited with her father after succeeding in an appeal against the Home Office’s refusal under family union rules.
Violet Hejazi, who has been in Scotland for a decade, last year pleaded with the department to allow her seriously ill father to be reunited with her and Simone, her sister, in Scotland before it is too late.
Continuing civil war forced the family to flee their home in northern Syria in 2013 after their village was ravaged by terrorist militia. She lost contact with her father, Ali, and stepmother as she became settled in Scotland. Her father is in his seventies and has suffered a series of strokes.
Violet’s own initial five-year visa expired in 2018 and she has indefinite leave to reman (ILR), which means she is no longer a refugee and could not apply to bring her parents here through the family reunion route.
However, she has a Legal Services HND from Glasgow College and is studying law at Glasgow University and it was through her studies that she found a ruling from the President of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) which said that minors could start family reunion proceedings.
That inspired her to pursue her own case, and she had been expecting a refusal in March last year. Now, 16 months on, the First-Tier Tribunal has found in her favour and she can bring her parents to Scotland.
Violet said it had been a long battle, but she was relieved that it was over: “I didn’t know what to say. I received the news over the phone and it was unreal. It actually took me a few days to digest the fact that we had won and there’s nothing more we need to prepare, in terms of legal arguments.
“I’m actually quite proud of myself because if I had not paid attention to the details, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
“It could take up to three weeks for my father’s visa to be implemented and from that day we have 30 days to travel. So it will be maybe two or three months before they’re in Scotland.”
She said there are no direct flights from Kurdistan Iraq, where her parents have been living, and there are more hurdles to jump regarding passports, visas and her father’s ill health, but she has managed to give him the news.
I’m just a little bit worried about the timescale and how fast we can get things done.
“On the day [of the ruling] I shared the news. We got that on the 14th of June and the 15th was my 10th anniversary in Scotland, so it was a very special week.
“I phoned him and he was very overwhelmed. I shared the news with my stepmother and she was happy but told me my father’s been very unwell for two days. He’s having fever attacks, which has been happening for the past year and there’s no doctor who can find out why.”
Violet did manage to speak to her father a few days later, and once he was convinced that he hadn’t been dreaming in the earlier call, he was delighted.
“He can barely move and can only speak for five minutes and then he’s tired. But that day, they actually went to a nearby park to go out for some fresh air and have a wee celebration. They were over the moon.”
Violet’s own lawyer, Usman Aslam, a senior associate at Mukhtar & Co Solicitors in Glasgow, said the family reunion process is there for refugees who have fled their home countries and been separated from their families, and this ruling extends its reach.
“Whilst the rules generally only allow spouses and children, we all know that family also means parents, it also means siblings, grandparents, or anyone that you consider family.
“Violet and her parents have had to suffer around two years unnecessarily, going through a bureaucratic nightmare, at a time when the Tory Government are trying to sell to the public that family reunion is a safe route.
“Why is that the applications are usually refused then having to cost the taxpayers a fortune for court appeals? What is more concerning is that the Home Office had more than one opportunity to review matters, instead, we were advised that the case was without merit.
“The public, and more importantly the court has clearly taken the opposite view to the Home Office.”
He said the system was in need of a complete overhaul, and urged to Home Office to engage with layers.
“Violet is a symbol of what refugees can achieve. She fled war, then learned the language when she came to Scotland, won several awards at college, now on route to becoming a solicitor.
“All she asked was to see her parents again. We are delighted with the result and welcome the judge’s decision and we will continue the fight for those facing oppressive immigration rules.”
Brain family ‘finally free of the Home Office’ … after a 12-year battle
AN Australian family living in the Highlands were celebrating last night after they were finally given leave to remain in their Scotland – after a 12-year battle with the Home Office.
The story of Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their then two-year-old son Lachlan made worldwide headlines after the Home Office scrapped the post-study work visa the family arrived here with, and tried to apply the new rules retrospectively.
They settled in Dingwall, from where their determination pitted them against more belligerent immigration ministers and home secretaries than many politicians have had to face – among them James Brokenshire, Caroline Nokes, Theresa May and Amber Rudd.
Throughout their fight they won direct support from MPs Ian Blackford, Drew Hendry and their SNP colleague Kate Forbes, as well as the SNP contingents at Westminster and the Scottish Parliament.
Their case went to Holyrood in 2016, when The National arranged a meeting between the family and then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her private office, at which we were the only media outlet attending.
However, their arrival in Holyrood’s foyer turned into a media scrum, as Gregg recalled last night: “We said to Lachlan ‘we’ve got to say goodbye to Nicola’, then of course seven-year-old Lachlan was saying goodbye to everyone, and just rushed up to Nicola and gave her a hug.
“Somebody [a photographer] caught the first time he did it, and there was this look of surprised delight on Nicola’s face in the first photo.
“And then of course all the photographers turned around saw it happening just as he let go, and they shouted ‘do it again, do it again’.
“So the second time for the photographers it looked nice, but it was awkward. I remember finding that one photo and we saved a copy of it somewhere.”
I was the only journalist allowed to sit in on the meeting in the FM’s private office as she sympathised with how they had been treated, and told them she would do what she could to help.
Eight years later and after a surfeit of changes to immigrations rules – including many brought about by Brexit – the Brains had to sit their Life in the UK test. They took it ahead of their application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which was submitted in April.
Kathryn and Lachlan were told last month that they had passed the test and their ILR had been approved.
Gregg wouldn’t speculate on why his decision was delayed, but yesterday – two weeks later – he breathed a sigh of relief as he told us: “Hi Greg – that’s three of us with our Indefinite Leave to Remain applications approved. We’re now officially free of the Home Office!”
In a Facebook post, the family said it was time to celebrate, and added: “We’ll be stopping by our immigration solicitor’s office on our way back north as we got the news from Andrew that he now has all three Indefinite Leave to Remain approvals through from the Home Office.”
Lachlan has grown up in Scotland and is now a teenaged pupil at Dingwall Academy, who is fluent in Gaelic, plays clarsach and has performed at the Mod.
After arriving in Scotland as an infant, he now towers over Kathryn, and at around 6ft, is as tall as his father.
Gregg is highly critical of the whole UK immigration system, including the Life in the UK test, which he says is self-defeating: “They actually sell you a textbook to study from. It’s not a test of your cultural assimilation at all; it’s just a measure of your ability to produce a result in accordance with western education norms.
“In other words, can you memorise information, and regurgitate it on demand?
“And having passed, they don’t even tell you what your score was, let alone which question/s you might have got wrong, so you can improve your cultural knowledge.
‘It’s as though they don’t even care about improving your cultural assimilation, but just want to place an extra obstacle in your path. Oh wait …”
And he says he was always wary about the outcome of his application: “There were legal reasons to consider that the Home Office could come up with a logical legal argument for a refusal.
“It was it was absolutely watertight, but there were logical ways they could come up with a refusal. One of the things that we also considered is that the person who is looking at our case isn’t just considering a legal application. There is a political dimension to it as well.
“And so we’re putting in this application in the fervent hope that everyone can avoid the international PR disaster that occurred in 2016 [their meeting with Nicola Sturgeon] and hope that they were thinking much the same thing.
“But their sensitivity to accountability seems to have increased dramatically over the last few years.”
When they arrived in Scotland in 2011 after 27 hours on a plane with a two-and-a-half year old child, they did not notice that while Kathryn’s and Lachlan’s passports were stamped, while Gregg’s was not.
That came back to haunt him during the years of waiting, when he says he became convinced he was being targeted by the Home Office as they were returning to Scotland after travelling elsewhere.
In April 2012 they were in Venice and had no visa trouble on their return. However, the following month they went to Australia to catch up with some relatives, and when they returned, Gregg was detained after being asked why he did not come into the UK with his family the previous year.
“I told them I had, but when we looked at my passport there was no stamp. I told them I came in 2011 and ‘if you guys didn’t do that, that’s an internal administrative issue for you’ … but of course that’s always visited upon the applicant. They came back 20 minutes later and said ‘you’re fine, we found you on the passenger manifest’.”
They refused to retroactively stamp his passport with the proper entry date, which Gregg says has resulted in him having to provide extra documentation – utility bills, leases and so on – every time he returns to Scotland.
“I suspect they’re finding themselves, in order to chase boats, having to appeal to a demographic that’s further and further out along the edge of the bell curve.”
Blackford told The National he was delighted that the Brains’ 12-year battle was over, and added: “But my goodness, what the family have had to endure over that period has been quite extraordinary – a lot of pain, a lot of tears, a lot of heartache along the way.
“And let’s not forget that the root of this was them arriving here with the promise of being able to benefit from the post study work visa and that was taken away from them whilst they were in transit to Scotland.
“There’s been a breach of faith and trust that’s been shown to them right at the beginning of this process, and there are times I have to admit that I thought the family would be looking at being deported.
“But I think the fact that so many people rallied round, through the resilience of all of them, that at the end they’ve been able to follow their dreams, their hopes and aspirations, and build a life for all of them in Scotland.
“They’re an integral part of our community, they add to Scotland’s story and I’m delighted that for them, at long last, the journey has reached its end.”
Documentary should shed further light on Annie’s mysterious death
I WAS glad to see Rogan Productions’ documentary for the BBC on the strange case of Anne Borjesson in the media this week having spoken to the team after writing about the death of the young Swede during my years at The National.
The 30-year-old worked in Edinburgh, spoke six languages and was described by friends as “chatty and lively”.
In December 2005, she told friends and family she was planning to return to Sweden for the festive season. On Saturday, December 3, she left her Edinburgh flat – for which she had paid rent in advance – with a travel bag and her passport, books to be returned to a library in Sweden, and had even booked a hair appointment in her home country.
CCTV at Prestwick Airport picked up Annie entering the terminal, but five minutes later she left the same way she came.
Her body was found the next day, face down on Prestwick beach. Police maintained her death was suicide or an accident, but family and friends have over the years demanded a further investigation.
My notes from conversations I had a decade ago with police, Maria Jansson – Annie’s close friend – a former justice secretary at Holyrood, are unfortunately long gone, but I will always remember the varying attitudes of those interviewees.
Maria was adamant that Annie would not have taken her own life – she had everything to live for.
I remember a retired, senior police officer of my acquaintance poo-pooing the idea that her death was anything other than a suicide, as did the then justice secretary.
I spoke to the makers of a Sky podcast series and expressed my doubts that those in authority were too hasty in their judgement.
One well-known Scots lawyer agreed with me during a conversation that all did not appear to be right with the case.
In 2019, I wrote:
POLICE did not apply to typical crime scene procedures when they investigated the controversial death of a Swedish woman in Scotland 14 years ago, according to a prominent Home Office pathologist.
In 2015, The National exclusively tried to shed light on the death of Annie Börjesson on Prestwick beach on 2005 after lawyer Aamer Anwar called for the cold case to be reopened. We later received a deeply moving letter of thanks from her family and friends.
Now, new claims have emerged in the final episode of a six-part Sky News podcast documentary – What happened to Annie? – which investigates the bizarre circumstances surrounding the 30-year-old’s death.
The documentary, released today, has led to a commitment from the Swedish Government to consider granting access to files related to the case.
In a statement to Sky News, Police Scotland Detective Sergeant Paul Livingstone, from the Specialist Crime Division, said the case was fully investigated at the time and had since been subject to review.
From what I’ve read about the latest documentary, it appears to raise even more questions about Annie’s death and I’m looking forward to watching it.
I hope it leads to the investigation being reopened and at the very least a fatal accident inquiry – and answers some of her family’s questions.
That is the very least they deserve.