Over 500 Nigerians deported from UK
(Updated)
(Updated)
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| 500 Nigerians arrived Lagos today after they were bundled in a plane and deported from the UK: Photo credit, bbc |
They have been told they will be forcibly removed
from the UK on a charter flight on Tuesday.
The care worker were arrested for allegedly
overstaying their visas. Some had worked for more than a decade and say they
are distraught at the prospect of leaving behind many elderly and vulnerable
people they have forged close bonds with.
Some of those being held were working for a large
company called Mears Group, which provides staff to care for elderly and
disabled people.
The Home Office confirmed that on 7 and 8
Septemberimmigration enforcement officers conducted simultaneous raids at
residential addresses across London. Thirty-four care workers were arrested and
detained while another 21 were served with immigration documents and placed on
temporary release.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This intelligence-led
operation was conducted in response to allegations that foreign nationals have
been using forged documentation to gain employment illegally as carers.”
Many of the detained workers are being held in
Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire. One said: “We are
getting all kinds of phonecalls and messages from the people we have been
looking after for many years asking us what has happened to us and when we are
going to go back to look after them. We know our clients so well – how they
like their cups of tea, what their favourite clothes are. But now we’ve lost
our clients and our clients have lost us.”
Olusoji Bolarinwa, 37, is one of the Nigerian care
workers who is being detained at Morton Hall immigration removal centre in
Lincoln. He received a Dignity In Care award in 2013 and has been nominated for
the same honour this year.
“We heard that up to 130 people were targeted in
night-time raids earlier this month,” said Bolarinwa.
“I was not at home when I was arrested. I was at a
friend’s house. They had not come looking for me, they came for my friend but
when they found me at his house they arrested me too. These raids were
terrible.
“They were banging on the doors in the early hours
of the morning. The people we were looking after keep asking where we are and
when we are coming back. I think they are being told that we are off sick, but
if we are deported on Tuesday the ‘sickness’ will not end.”
A female care worker said that she was woken up in
the early hours of the morning by battering on her door. “I thought there was a
fire,” she said. “It is true that I had overstayed my visa but many of us have
worked as carers for years and years, some for more than 10 years. In that time
we have always paid our taxes, our national insurance and our pension
contributions and have had all the police checks.
“Why did nobody raise the issue of our visas before
now? I loved my job, I was providing personal care to old people. We were being
paid peanuts but we didn’t mind because at least we had a roof over our heads
and could send some money back to our families in Nigeria. Many carers have
overstayed their visas. If the Home Office remove us all there are not going to
be enough people to look after all the old and vulnerable people in this
county.”
One elderly client told the Guardian: “I miss her,
she really knows me well and cares about me,… I didn’t understand at first why
she went away without telling me. Other carers have come but I keep having to
tell them what to do and it’s confusing.”
Alan Long, one of the directors of Mears Group, said
not all the carers picked up by the Home Office had worked for the firm. He
added: “We have got very good procedures but one or two do tend to slip through
the net. It’s unfortunate that some of the staff were long-term workers with
us. We always work with the Home Office and I don’t think that this has
impacted on our service.”
Mears Care in Hounslow received a glowing report
from the Care Quality Commission this year scoring “good” on all five key
indicators. The CQC found that older people and those with physical and mental
health problems who were receiving care reported their carers to be kind,
polite and considerate and said they felt supported by them.
Sally Warren, deputy chief inspector of adult social
care at the CQC, said: “Our priority is to make sure that Mears Care Hounslow
continues to provide people with care and support that is of the standard that
they deserve and that we expect. We are continuing to liaise with Mears Care to
monitor the impact that the staff vacancies are having on the quality of care
and will be kept informed on their recruitment and mitigation plans.”
UK to return illegal Nigerians in Britain
THE United Kingdom (UK) has on Thursday, said the return of Nigerians, who have no right to remain in the UK is a key part of upholding a fair and robust immigration system, although stating that its preference is for such individuals to leave the UK voluntarily.
It said in an event the individuals fail to leave
voluntarily, removal action will be taken against them.
Dropping the hint via a statement, Edward Dunn, who serves
as Press Officer at British High Commission in Abuja said that returning the
individuals, who lack right to remain in UK, will only be done after the
government has determined nationality and medical fitness to travel, and when
all legal avenues to remain in the UK have been exhausted.
"We will continue to maintain a close dialogue with the
Nigerian Government, including the Nigeria High Commission in London, on these
important and sensitive matters, which are of vital importance to our
relations," he said.
Dunn used the platform to rebut allegations in some media of
a failure to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora.
He acknowledged that a meeting was scheduled between the
Chair of the House Committee on Diaspora, Honourable Rita Orji, and the British
High Commissioner on Tuesday November 17 but said, due to a short notice change
of timing by the House Committee, the High Commissioner was not able to attend
the meeting.
"That meeting was then postponed," he said.
According to him, "While Diplomatic Missions are not
formally required to answer to summons by a Nigerian Parliamentary House
Committee, members of the British High Commission remain very willing to meet
with the Committee Chair to discuss any issues they find concerning.
"Nigeria is the third highest source of visitors to the
UK, enriching the UK with a thriving Disapora. It is right that we continue to
encourage and endorse the best migration practices.
"We work closely with the Nigerian Government to
facilitate visas for the large numbers of very welcome travellers between our
two countries and to ensure the return of the small minority, who choose not to
return when their visa expires," he said.
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