Interesting.
So she has an extended family in Singapore. So the 'caring for the parents' thing might be a load of crap.
"I don’t like going out here. I feel uncomfortable because every time I open my mouth people look at me strangely. My accent is different."
What a load of rubbish. Singapore is full of people of different backgrounds, nobody speaks English properly, and it's not a big deal.
"When she compares this with her life in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, where they brought up their two sons, John and Sonny,"
Um, I thought she was in Singapore most of the time they were growing up (some of it with them)?
"She says she’s never had such close friendships in Singapore and that in Britain “nobody has ever looked at me as someone different”."
Really? Is that why she left Britain, effectively permanently, in 1992?
"John received a letter from the government saying he was fit for work and would no longer get his employment support allowance (ESA)."
So the bit about her being his carer is grossly exaggerated. Clearly he has been ill, but he's not exactly about to be put in a nursing home is he.
"When she left them at the airport, the four security guards were headed to a hotel on Orchard Road for the night. “Places there are at least 300 dollars a night,” she says, marvelling at the cost of removing a grandmother from her home."
This is not true. In fact there are places under S$200 (£100) a night.
"Over the last three decades, she has built a life in Britain. "
Not exactly.
"In September 2001 she celebrated her elder son John’s 10th birthday in County Durham before heading to Singapore to sort out a flat she owned and rent it out. “I missed my kids but I was only planning to go for a short while and come back,” she says. It took longer than she expected sort to organise the rental and save enough money to fly back again
In 2003 she came back to the UK on a visitor visa"
Wait, so she was in England in September 2001, since when? It's not clear.
And if you were only planning to stay in Singapore a short time, why would you not buy a return ticket from England? It's much cheaper. It seems to me that the reality is she was already living there, and purchased a ticket Singapore - England - Singapore for her son's birthday.
"In 2003 she came back to the UK on a visitor visa and has been battling with the Home Office ever since to get a more permanent visa. Between 2003 and 2004 she put in four separate applications for leave to remain and they were all rejected because she had been out of the country for more than two years, invalidating her earlier leave to remain."
This is false. The reason the LTR applications were rejected was because she was on a visitor's visa. You cannot convert a visitor visa into a settlement visa. She would have to apply for a settlement visa from outside the UK. There is no reason to keep applying, because the application is wrong from the beginning.
"In 2007, two days before Christmas, she arrived in the UK but was refused leave to enter as a visitor. She showed her marriage certificate and the border official said they didn’t believe she was only visiting and put her on the next flight back to Singapore."
Well yes, they would do that. You can't enter as a visitor if your intent is to remain with your husband who is already a UK resident. You need a settlement visa for that.
"Finally, after eight long years locked out of Britain, she tried entering Britain on a visitor visa from India, where she had been working while trying to think of a way to get home. It was 2013 and she turned up at Heathrow airport and tried her luck. She recalls: “The border official said, ‘Why didn’t you see your kids for eight years?’ and I said, ‘Because I couldn’t get in.’” He took pity on her and gave her a six-month visitor visa."
Um, as a Singaporean citizen she would get a six month entry anyway: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_Kingdom#Non-visa_nationals
So that story is bollocks.
"Her son John still hasn’t forgiven her for the eight years she was stuck outside the country while he and his brother were children. "
Yeah this is bollocks tbh. Where was his father during this process? At the point where the family wanted to reunite in the UK he should have been supporting his wife to make a settlement visa application. The entire process whereby she gets to live in the UK rests on the support of the British spouse. So he needs to move hell and high water to make it happen.
If they did have a genuine relationship throughout this process (and it's not clear that the marriage hadn't in fact broken down perhaps in 1998), then they need to prove that.
"Clennell gets upset remembering how long she was kept apart from her family. “The only reason I left my kids is that the UK government wouldn’t give me the right to stay and I couldn’t bring the kids here with me because John wouldn’t allow it. I think now I can say that my relationship with my kids was spoiled by the Home Office.”"
This is nonsensical. Our family was separated by the Home Office, briefly, in 2002, until we complied with the rules and got a settlement visa. Since then the Home Office hasn't bothered us in the slightest. I'm not clear at what point when you have repeatedly applied for leave to remain that could never be granted you give up and actually follow the fucking rules?
"Her sister-in-law Angela has been in touch overnight to say The Sun has written an article asking if the Home Office was right to deport her. She looks again and again at the story on a laptop. “It’s so frustrating when you read your story and it’s all wrong,” she says. “And it’s not just what the paper said, it’s the comments under the piece too.” Though she has never denied that she was out of the country for 15 years in total, she says The Sun’s timeline is mixed up and she’s upset by the way it tells the story."
The story www.thesun.co.uk/news/2979351/singapore-gran-deported-for-spending-too-long-with-dying-parents-spent-15-years-of-27-year-marriage-to-brit-abroad-say-officials/ is rather better than the 'gofundme' www.gofundme.com/bringirenehome, which - still - claims "For 30 years, my sister-in-law Irene has lived in Britain "
The key question is - since 1994 when her ILR expired, apparently not once has she applied for a settlement visa, which would have allowed her to lawfully enter the UK to apply with her family. Why the fuck not? At what point does she take responsibility for her own actions???
" She is desperate to come home and knows that if she doesn’t successfully launch a new legal case in the next 28 days, she will be barred from re-entering the UK for 10 years and is likely to struggle to get a visa after that."
Well yes, this is not exactly rocket science. You have a very clear choice, following an overstay (which she clearly committed).
(a) leave voluntarily - 1 year ban
(b) leave at expense of state - 5 year ban
(c) deportation - 10 year ban
She chose to remain even when this was clearly spelled out long before the deportation! Her overstay started in 2013. At what point does she take responsibility for her own actions?!
"When Lily collected Clennell at the airport she was shocked at how different she looked to the last time she dropped her there in 2013. “I took her to the airport when she was going back to London,” Lily says. “She was well dressed with good luggage. Coming back, looking at her I was very sad. Very sad. The way that she looked, the bag that she carried. That bag, in Singapore it only costs a dollar. Coming back from London carrying a bag like that. It was very hurting to look at her that way.”"
Wait what????
Scroll up:
"“So from 2010 to 2013 I was in India working as a forex trader.”
Finally, after eight long years locked out of Britain, she tried entering Britain on a visitor visa from India, where she had been working while trying to think of a way to get home. It was 2013""
How did her Singaporean sister drop her off at the airport when she was at that time in India?
"Having worked as a gas engineer and paid taxes, John is livid at the treatment of his wife. "
How about he takes responsibility for his own treatment of her rather than blaming the government for enforcing the law. Why, in TWENTY YEARS, was he not sponsoring a single settlement visa application for her? It makes no sense.
"Now she just wants to be back home with John. She says it should be simple: “People get married for a reason: because they want to be with their husband and family for the rest of their life.”"
Well maybe, so in that case why did you leave them 20 years ago? You have THREE sisters in Singapore, the 'care giver' argument makes no sense.