to really think this is an awful situation

[ElectricalBanana]

and why is this happening?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-21477565

i dont really know what to say....please someone tell me i am right to be a bit and that this is happening to this family....

This is why -

Government rules brought in in July last year state people living in this country must be earning £22,400 plus £2,400 for each dependent they want to bring into the UK.

I suppose it was brought in to curtail sham marriages, whereby the whole extended family seems to be able to come over with no mean of support.

Really the father in that piece should have dealt with it before now, had the children naturalised as UK citizens rather than living on a tourist visa.

I dare say it will be waived now it's hit the press.

i know why Holly....but hell fire this is a totally different kettle of fish.

i saw it on local telly the other night and i just sat there with my hand over my mouth....yes i know dad should've sorted it earlier but all the same...

Why is the father insisting that they will have to go into care in South Africa? Surely if his children actually are returned there, he would go with them to look after them? I see that he has a new partner and new daughter in the UK, but if they are unwilling or unable to move to SA, surely its at least better to go home with his boys and temporarily leave his daughter with their mother while he looks for a better paid job and/or sorts out their visa situation?

He should have thought about his first family before starting a second one, sending the kids to their grandparents. Poor little things, shoved from pillar to post

Surely the father wouldn't just sit back and let his children be sent back to SA on their own??! The obvious answer is that he would go back with them - isn't it? Or have I missed something?

he sounds like a great dad.

Those poor children. I agree that the obvious solution would be for the father to move back to South Africa with his family and resolve the situation from there.

No, no - the father is English, the mother was South African, the children were born in South Africa. Hence he returned here, 5 years ago, after the mother committed suicide, and brought the children on a tourist visa, which has now expired.

Chances are he wouldnt get residency in South Africa either if hte children were deported.

The Home Office will shelve this case because it is highlighted and should be dealt with on merit.

I still stand by the fact he should be providing a home for his children first and foremost, which includes the stability of the correct visa.

It is an awful situation, but it's a situation of that mans own making. He is responsible, no one else.

It doesn't say that the father is English, though? Only that he has lived here for five years?

I'm sure they are allowed a sponsor?

That is how I got in to the US, and how if my DH had not become a UK citizen we would have had to do this side.

We had no idea how much we wold make, poor things how could he?

They need to be given help on compassionate grounds.

Oh I see. English dad, South African mum. But he's had 5 long years to sort out the children's visas. What did he think was going to happen when they expired?!

But, hold on , if he is English ....they will get UK passports through him surely?

I'm reading it as he's English as he 'brought them back' - might be wrong - ambiguous reporting? His parents are here though (or is it her parents?)

Meh! wait till the DM interviews him and we'll have his blood group and inside leg measurement too!

I'm surprised he's waited until their tourist visas are about to expire before doing anything to regularise their immigration status.

The father can't be english as the children would have (or at lest could have) dual nationality.

However sad it is, it is the father's fault they are in this predicament. It would be very dangerous to make an exception for him as then you set a legal precedent and many others would simply try the same thing, then argue that they should stay to.

Sadly, he's made his own bed, but it's the children that will suffer.....

There is more information on this article

www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/10227465.Burnley_dad_s_battle_to_prevent_his_children_being_deported/

The father is South African and emigrated five years ago - the children's grandmother is English.

Lets take this logically - purely by reading tawdry press at times - he has a new baby presumably with a British citizen? therefore he (if south african) cannot be deports on human rights grounds as he has a child here - however just because he can stay, (if he is south african) then it doesnt automatically follow that the first children can - the depended and earning powers would come into play.

Has that made it clearer or muddied the waters?

I still think he's English though, otherwise, why would you leave south africa and arrive here? Unless - he is south african, because maybe his parents worked out there for a large proportion of their lives and retired back in teh UK? but then, I cant see people doing that unless (a) they ran out of money (b) they need specialist medical care, when you have you children and grand children in south africa.

So on balance, I think he's English, the wife killed herself, he brought the kids back here, dumped them on his parents, set up a new family and forgot to sort out the visa.

Thanks current I needent have hypothesised!

I'm sorry but the law needs to be followed. We can't pick or choose who gets deported based on the saddest sob story. As much I feel sorry for the family and wish them the very best, we need to put our country and it's immigration laws first.

He left them behind with their mother 5 years ago when he moved to the UK. Why did he leave his children?

Their mother committed suicide and they moved in with her parents who were living in a residential home, he then bought them to the uk.

My understanding of it is that his parents had lived in South Africa, where he was born & brought up, then retired to the UK, as the mother was English.
In the meantime, he had two children with a woman in South Africa, and they separated when the youngest child was a tiny baby - five years ago - at which point he emigrated to the UK, too. At some point (last year?), the mother of his children killed herself, so the children went to live with their SA grandparents in their retirement home as a temporary measure.
The father doesn't appear to have covered himself with glory here, abandoning two very small children to emigrate to another country etc, but common sense suggest the children should surely be able to stay on humanitarian grounds.

cross posts Mrspartacus your account is far more succinct