Johannesburg - Sickly widow Myrtle Cothill travelled from Port Shepstone to Britain in February 2014 to visit her only living relative, her 66-year-old daughter, Mary Wills.
After spending a couple of months with her daughter, Cothill realised she wished to stay in the country. Wills, a qualified caregiver, also wanted to look after her ailing mother in her final years.
It has been reported that Cothill could no longer afford to pay her rent in South Africa or buy food and that medical aid costs were prohibitive.
However, the British Home Office has said her six-month visitor’s visa cannot suddenly be switched to a residency permit, and that such an application would have had to have been made while the 92-year-old was still in South Africa. Because of this, she faces deportation back home to do so, despite her frailty and concerns that she might not even survive the flight home.
According to a petition on change.org that has secured 50 923 signatures asking that Cothill be allowed to stay in the UK, the 92-year-old suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and macular degeneration causing blindness in one eye. She is unable to walk unaided, has a chronic cough, poor vision and is hard of hearing. “She is unable to care or cook for herself and relies on her daughter Mary for emotional and physical support,” the petition reads.
It goes on to explain that Wills and her husband David cannot move to South Africa to look after Cothill, as David too suffers from Parkinson’s disease and COPD which severely affects his own mobility and breathing. The couple also have no right to residency in South Africa, with Mary having become a British citizen in 1998.
“Like any good daughter and wife, Mary deeply loves her husband and her mother and just wants to take care of them. However, the Home Office has refused Myrtle leave to remain in the UK and is expecting the 92-year-old to return to South Africa on her own.
“This would rip the family apart and leave them broken-hearted. The courts have felt unable to overturn the Home Office decision, relying on the stringent nature of the current Immigration Rules on adult dependent relatives,” the petition states.
“My mother just cannot live on her own,” said Wills, “and emotionally, to her as well as for myself, it would really tear strips out of our heart and probably would kill my mother - and maybe myself as well.”
The present immigration rule on adult dependant relatives introduced in 2012 makes it more difficult for British citizens to bring their elderly parents to live with them in the UK.
Because of this, the petition asks that the British government and Home Office not only grant Cothill permission to remain in the UK to live out her remaining days, but also to reverse the 2012 amendment changing the less stringent rules on bringing citizens’ parents to the country.
A recent statement by the Home Office published in other media said: “All applications are considered on their individual merits, including any exceptional or compassionate circumstances, and in line with the Immigration Rules.
“The decision made on this case has been upheld by two separate, independent tribunals which considered the full range of evidence presented.”
In previous statements to the British press, the office said Cothill’s application was rejected as her “condition was not deemed to be life-threatening” and that suitable medical treatment could be sought in South Africa.
In a recent interview with eNCA, Wills said the family is always on guard and can’t relax with the looming threat of Cothill being removed from their home.
Meanwhile Cothill herself said she hoped the British Home Office would have compassion regarding her case.
“I just pray that they will look at me with a bit of compassion so that I can live with my daughter,” she said.
Spokesman for the British High Commission in Pretoria, Hooman Nouruzi, said the British Home Office looks at such cases individually and judges each of them on their respective merits.
However, while he had heard of Cothill’s plight, he was unable to comment further because he did not have all the details about this particular case.
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