Form C2 - Kezia's Passport contd

So finally we ascertain we cannot use IPS Form SE04 to apply for Kezia's replacement passport as she is not resident in the UK but must use Form C2. My brother managed to find a downloadable pdf version of the form and sent it to me.

Instructions for completing the form state "Please use black ink and capital letters, if handwriting" which implies to me that you can alternatively complete the form on your computer using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

If only ...

The form is a) encrypted so as to even prevent you from superimposing text objects and b) contains no data fields. As a result you are obliged to print out the form and complete it by hand. The space available for many of the entries is so small that your block capital handwriting must be miniscule (Mothers town and country of birth: Sao Tome, Sao Tome e Principe - there are precisely x centimetres for this).

So I have gone through the laborious process of finding and downloading a free pdf deencryption tool and then downloading a trial version of Adobe Acrobat Pro Portable and adding data fields. Now I can complete the form on a computer and size the text accordingly.

Nationality

I married Nanda in February 2006 in order to pass UK nationality to Kezia because a UK father could not pass his nationality to the child of a foreign mother if they weren't married. The law changed in July 2006.

"From 1 July 2006 the definition of of a parent for British nationality purposes changed to include illegitimate child/ren born through a surrogacy arrangement to a British citizen father; provided that the mother of the child is not still validly married to another man."

Kezia's Passport contd

My few regular readers may recall my post of 15 February this year regarding the renewal of Kezia's UK passport. The upshot was that I never heard back from the UK embassies in Angola nor South Africa.

The new UK ambassador to Angola and São Tomé e Príncipe recently visited to present his credentials. We met and decided it would be easiest if we apply direct to the UK domestic/internal passport service (the Home Office Identity and Passport Service). Yesterday I grabbed the bull by the horns, and as I relate from an email to my brother ...

"Try downloading the passport application form! I couldn't find it either on FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] or IPS [Identity and Passport Service] websites. IPS actually says "most domestic printers cannot print to the standard we require" wnatever that means. FCO wants us to apply through the embassy in Angola who will send it to South Africa who will then send it to the UK to print the passport and return by same route. IPS says it can require the applicant to attend an interview so has to be in the UK at time of application. So even if we put 10 Butterfield Sreet as UK residence, the fact she is not physically at 10 Butterfield Street, means we cannot apply directly to the IPS from Sao Tome.

You can ask the IPS online to send you a paper application form through the post - but obviously. given the above, it seems unlikely they would send it to STP!".

The bull's horns have slipped through my hands! I hope Her Majesty's Secretary of State will help out. I really need to read Kafka's ""The Castle" again.

A strange sympathy

Nanda would like to work, Nanda would like to be a normal contributing member of British society but ...

From the Guardian 20 December by Yeukai Taruvinga ...

"When I tell ordinary British people that I came to this country from Zimbabwe to seek asylum because of Robert Mugabe's government, they are always sympathetic. They see the humanitarian crisis, the old people and children dying of cholera - the UN reported yesterday that there were more than a thousand dead and another 20,000 sufferers. They see on the news night after night what Mugabe is doing to my country. And they see the continuing human rights crisis and how he treats those who oppose him.

Hopes were raised when Mugabe agreed to a power-sharing government with the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. But it is evident that human rights are still not being respected. In the last two weeks prominent human rights defenders have been abducted by groups suspected of having government links. These include Jestina Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who has not been seen since she was taken from her home on 3 December.

British politicians have expressed great sympathy towards Zimbabweans. Just last week Gordon Brown said that "we must stand together to defend human rights and democracy, to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough", and that it was "our duty" to support the aspirations of the Zimbabwean people. David Cameron has described Zimbabwe as the most important issue in the world today and has pressed for wider sanctions and a rescue package for the Zimbabwean people. And David Miliband has said that, "Zimbabwe's crisis is one that the world has a responsibility to respond to."

It is good to hear all this, but how does it translate into action? It is easy to condemn a government from afar. But if politicians really believe that Mugabe is illegitimate, that his repression of his own people is the most important issue in the world today, why do they behave as they do to his victims?

I got involved in supporting the opposition party when I was a student. Like many MDC supporters, I was beaten up by Mugabe's Zanu-PF thugs when I went to meetings and rallies. When they wrote threats on the walls of my family's house, my mother decided that I should leave the country.

I believed that I would be safe when I came here seven years ago, at the age of 18. When I stepped foot on English soil and claimed asylum, I did not realise that I was in for a long battle. I have been detained - imprisoned - for two and a half months, simply because I claimed asylum. I have been moved between three different detention centres, and taken without notice from Colnbrook at Heathrow, to Yarl's Wood in Bedford to Dungavel in Scotland.

You feel extremely helpless in such places: it is almost impossible to stay in touch with friends or your lawyer, and you believe that anything could happen to you and nobody would know about it. Although suspected terrorists cannot be held without trial for more than 28 days, I was locked up for more than 60 days. In Dungavel at that time there were only half a dozen women and hundreds of foreign criminals awaiting deportation. It was terrifying just to walk around the centre.

It seems to me that political leaders are reluctant to do anything to help those who make their way here. Last week Jacqui Smith said that the government's priority was to ensure that Zimbabwean refugees did not use false passports in order to get to this country. She did not say that refugees should find a fair system when they arrive.

I am still not safe. I have not been given refugee status. After my release from detention I was not allowed benefits nor allowed to work. This is the government's policy of destitution; if you have failed in your asylum claim, then you are forced to live without support. I rely on handouts and gifts from churches and friends, even for the bed I sleep in and the soap I wash with. Most of the people who help me are asylum seekers or refugees themselves, because they understand what it's like.

It is humiliating: not only can I not work, but I cannot study or learn. I am worried about the impact this is going to have on my future. I want to study and work, so that when Mugabe is toppled I and my fellow activists can be the backbone of the new country that will arise from the ashes. But all avenues are blocked to me to grow and give back to society. It is strange that this country, which expresses such sympathy for Zimbabwe's people, condemns its refugees to this kind of life - which is no life at all.

• Yeukai Taruvinga is not allowed to work; the fee for this article has been donated to Women Asylum Seekers Together in London, which she chairs refugeewomen.com.

Disgusted

... is how I feel at the tone of these BBC reports (link and link) on "immigrant" maternity rates pandering to extreme right-wing sympathies. I will not say more on the subject - yesterday Tom Reynolds was perturbed and Dr Crippen is downright scared.

Medical Justice

In the light of the forced removal from the UK of the Ghanaian myeloma patient Ama Sumani we were drawn to this correspondence in the Lancet about the government' plans to withdraw NHS treatment from "failed" asylum seekers.

An online petition (regrettably, only open to doctors) can be found here. And the organisation Medical Justice is here. To any doctor readers we may have - we hope you will sign the petition.

Immigrants and the NHS

On Wednesday the BBC ran a story about a Ghanaian woman, Ama Sumani, who needs weekly kidney dialysis as a result of multiple myeloma and has just been deported to her home country. She needs a bone marrow transplant. She is an illegal immigrant, albeit not of the most serious kind. She is not a health tourist, she became ill in the UK. Yes, she did abuse her Student Visa. Having applied for a banking course but not being able to pursue it because of language difficulties, she started working (so not requiring state support). Due to her language difficulties, it is quite possible that she didn´t understand the immigration rules.

Although the dialysis was seemingly given on the NHS, the rules say she cannot be given a bone marrow transplant on the NHS. This is both ridiculous, inhumane and uncharitable given that bone marrow donors come from all across the world (and Ghana has just set up the first tropical African bone marrow register and is seeking international certification) and that the procedure itself is relatively inexpensive and simple.

According to Ghana's High Commission in the UK the country has two hospitals that can offer dialysis, and, as we know, one hospital attempting to set up bone marrow transplants.

If she has paid Ghanaian social security, yes, the treatment will be free. But in Africa unless you are paid by the small formal sector (whether state or private), this is exceedingly rare. She has little choice, I suspect, but to go private which whether for dialysis or a bone marrow transplant is very likely to be beyond her means.

Please support the DWIB Leukaemia Fund.

Update here.

January 15 Lancet editorial here.

Charity and Benefits

Our social worker at the RMCH, T., working for Clic Sargeant, has been marvellous. She's arranged us bits of money here and there ... every bit has helped.

A.& H. suggested we should apply to the Samantha Jones Trust, a young peoples cancer charity, for a computer – so I could communicate with Kezia, Nanda and Jaime by VoIP and save on our telephone bills. So T. tried for us.

H.'s application was successful. Lucia, I know was successful ... but ours wasn't. Ours wasn't - as they figure she's only 2 ½ and doesn't know how to operate a computer ... T. tells me they have a policy of no computer grants to under 5 year olds.

Operating a computer is not important – she needs to see and talk to her dad, I need to see and talk to her.

Anyway, a friend here, another T. has given us a laptop with a wireless card which I took over to the UK, I bought a webcam at Christmas, and hopefully we'll all talk by the Internet soon and save lots on phone bills!

SJT – look I know you're only meant to benefit the patient ... but surely father talking to patient daughter comes under that ...

Nanda has “no recourse to public funds” as a condition of her visa. Therefore Kezia cannot get any benefits (e.g. Child Benefit and Disability Living Allowance). If I had been resident in the UK for six months, she could. That she has been resident in the UK for over six months doesn't count. I think this is pretty stupid particularly in the case of Child Benefit which aims, I believe, to umm ... benefit the child!

Never mind.

Going Home

At the beginning of the fifth week, we were allowed to go home. Not back here! But to the rented house. Now Kezia was to start the next stage of treatment as an out-patient. The hospital would provide transport and an interpreter for Nanda.

The new home

What a relief to get home. The coming days were filled with orienting Nanda – local shops, down town, money, buses, bank, switching on the central heating, the gas fire (we don't have such things back here!), paying the rent, the bills.

A brief respite before we started the second stage of treatment - “Augmented BFM Consolidation”. Particularly intensive – but I'll talk about that in a medical post.

We also had visits from our social worker T., the Macmillan Community Nurse from the hospital A., and the local health worker C. C. has helped us out a lot in the last few months.

Immigration again – “No Recourse to Public Funds” on Nanda's new two year visa (and later Jaime's). I'm probably putting us at lots at risk with the immigration authorities here by discussing such things on this blog.

So let's hope no IND officials or racists read this ...

So we registered Nanda and Kezia with the local NHS doctor - General Practitioner/GP in the UK (our family doctor). At the same time the hospital (RMCH) advised the GP not to treat Kezia – everything to do with Kezia must go with the hospital - obvious.

Recently there was an item on the BBC news website that GPs (through the British Medical Council) refused to be policemen for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) of the Home Office for illegal or abusing immigrants.

On the IND website it advises what “No Recourse to Public Funds” means, seemingly, the NHS, Child Benefit (it's for a UK child, not a foreign mother for godssake) etc etc – but not education. So we have been able to put Jaime in the local primary school. If doctors are refusing to monitor immigration status, can you imagine teachers ...!

I must say, though, that the FCO through the Embassy and the IND have bent-over-backwards to help us. I don't blame them in the immigration requirements – they are, after all, following the regulations, laws and Acts of Parliament which they are duty/job-bound to follow.

Meanwhile, I needed to come back here. My job is here, our house is here, Nanda wants to come back here, I want to stay here ... and I have to earn some money to keep them in the UK.

Especially, as an IND requirement is that they (Nanda and Jaime – Kezia is a Brit) don't want to stay in the UK indefinitely and we can only prove that by me, a UK national, saying I don't want to stay in the UK indefinitely. Kafka?

So on Friday 7 July I set off back here.

Kezia, Baby and the Menagerie

Immigration

You may have been wondering why Jaime hasnn't figured much in this so far ...

First, Jaime didn't come with us back in May. I'd booked a ticket for a week, Nanda and Kezia for a month. Little did we know ... We employ a really trustworthy guy (H.) to look after the land (smallholding-size: 60 m x 60 m) around our home and we asked him and his family (wife K. and small daughter J.) to come up and live here, look after Jaime and the house. They did an admirable job! Thanks! As they live with Mum, brother (+ ...), sister (+ ...) in a very small wooden house it's a bit of a holiday for them (although living on my own now concerns everyone – it's a far more “social” society than the UK).

Then, when we discovered it was leukaemia and the length of treatment (c. 2 years for girls, c. 3 years for boys), we had to apply for Nanda to stay longer than the initial six months granted at Heathrow.

Getting a passport for Kezia was not a great problem. Although I am Kezia's registered father, Kezia cannot receive my nationality if I am not legally married to the foreign mother – Margaret Thatcher's bloody 1981 nationality legislation! (If it was the other way round – UK mother, foreign father – no problem). Having discovered this early 2006, we got married on February 4 2006. (As you can gather formal marriage is rather against my personal philosophy!) Fortunately, the 1981 Nationality Act is “retrospective” so even though we married after Kezia was born, she still receives UK nationality through her dad. Now Kezia is the proud owner of British Citizenship and a UK passport! Not that she really cares right now.

Nanda was more complicated ...

The Embassy and the Passport Office had signed off on Kezia being a British Citizen. The Embassy had signed off that Nanda is my wife. However, to extend Nanda beyond 6 months, we needed: translated documents, birth and marriage certificates, bank statements (here and there), statements of income and contract length from my employer, proof of will return to country-of-origin (letter from my employer), letters from our consultant J. and social worker T. etc etc. Took a time but we got it.

On to Jaime ...

The embassy can only grant 6 month visitor's visas. Obviously, we wanted Jaime to get the same as Nanda. So first we had to wait until Nanda's 2 years came through. Then we had to send Jaime's passport and all the same documentation cited above to the embassy (in Angola as you will recall) who then had to send it all to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in the UK. First difficulty was getting it all to Angola – DHL costs an arm and a leg if you don't have a contract with them. I rang my friend B. who works at the top hotel here to see if they had a DHL contract – no, but hang on a minute. An aunty of an employee, an Angolan judge, was staying at the hotel and returning to Angola tomorrow. I raced down to the hotel and she hand-carried everything to the embassy – I can't remember your name but many thanks!

The return leg was facilitated by JG, our hon British consul and a local businessman, who happened to visit Angola just as the visa came through.

I picked up Jaime's passport on 29 October and we were on the plane to the UK on 5 November!

Took a while and Nanda really didn't understand why it was taking so long when for her and Kezia it only took three days!

Again many thanks to L. at our local travel agency.

And many many thanks to the UK embassy in Angola who have been absolutely amazing throughout this ordeal.

You may wonder why I'm the only member of the family posting – well, Nanda and Jaime don't speak English (yet!) and Kezia's a bit too young to have mastered either the lingiustic or computer skills. If this blog survives, hopefully you will see entries from them in the future.

This weekend I'll try and get some medical info. written. Still can't upload photos. See you on Monday.