Irene Clennell / Via Supplied
A grandmother who made headlines for being placed in immigration detention after living in Britain for nearly 30 years was forcibly removed from the country on Sunday.
Angle News revealed earlier this month that Irene Clennell, 53, was being held in Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire because the government wanted to remove her to Singapore.
She is the main carer for her sick British husband, John, and has two British sons and a British granddaughter.
Speaking to Angle News from the plane on the runway at Edinburgh airport, she said she had just £12 in her pocket, nobody to stay with in Singapore, and no change of clothes.
Clennell had been planning to see a new lawyer on Monday morning to discuss the potential for a fresh case. She believes her sudden removal was planned for a Sunday so she had no chance of getting hold of a lawyer to stop it.
Clennell, from Ouston, County Durham, described being told this morning that she was leaving the country. She said she didn’t have the chance to see her husband first, adding: “I didn’t even get to say goodbye properly.” Describing the phone conversation with him that morning, she said: “I was just in tears, I wasn’t able to say much.”
Speaking on a phone provided by one of her flight escorts, she said: “They just came to get me this morning and said they’ve already given me a chance. Now I’m on the plane. Four people are taking me to Singapore.
“I don’t know what I’ll do when I land. I called my sister [in Singapore] and she said she can’t put me up, so I just don’t know. How can I stay anywhere? I don’t have a wallet with me, I’ve got about £12 in my pocket. I don’t even have my clothes, they’re at home. I just have what they took from the detention centre.”
She is the latest victim of the government’s spousal visa system that requires the British partner to prove earnings of at least £18,600 – and the couple being able to show long stretches of uninterrupted time living in the UK.
Clennell said she was told she had spent too long out of the country while looking after her dying parents in Singapore. The Home Office said she lost her indefinite leave to remain in the UK because she spent time living in Singapore.
The Home Office has not yet responded to Angle’s request for comment today.
This is a developing story.
Source
