A decorated Second World War veteran died less than three hours before his grandson could reach his bedside to say his final farewell, due to delays at an outsourcing company paid millions by the Home Office to process travel visas.
Anthony Eldridge, 92, who earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his service with the Royal Navy, died on Monday afternoon at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, while his grandson, Brendan Currie, was in Calais queuing for the Eurotunnel.
Mr Currie, who was born in South Africa but lives in Norway, was forced to travel to Paris to secure a fast-track UK visa after being told that the application process could take weeks.
Visa administration in 74 countries was outsourced to the French firm Teleperformance by the Home Office last year. Critics have said the move has led to “chaos and humiliation” for those hoping to travel to Britain, and last night an expert in immigration law suggested that delays with UK visa applications have become widespread.
The Home Office prioritised Mr Currie's case after his desperate attempts to obtain a visa were highlighted by The Independent. But tragically the intervention came too late and he was told of his grandfather's death as he boarded the Eurotunnel's shuttle service in France. Mr Eldridge's funeral will be held on Friday.
Describing the “agonising” moment when he discovered he had missed the chance to say goodbye, Mr Currie expressed his gratitude for The Independent's help.
“I was lucky that I had a voice, that there was somebody to fight for me here in the UK, otherwise nothing would have happened,” he said. “If I hadn't had that voice, I probably wouldn't have got to his funeral. I would've missed everything.”
The family of Mr Eldridge, who was the last surviving member of an elite group of Royal Navy divers known as the “charioteers”, called on the Government to introduce an emergency phone number so that urgent visa cases could be dealt with compassionately.
“If someone's dying, you don't get six months' notice,” said Phil Billingham, who is married to Mr Eldridge's granddaughter, Shannon. “There's got to be a way of getting people from where they are to see somebody who's dying within three or four days. There has to be some form of contact for these people … Even though you're probably not going to be able to have a lucid conversation, you just want to have that final moment to say: 'Cheers, fella, thanks very much for everything.' “
Teleperformance is not responsible for making decisions on whether to grant visas, but manages the application process and the face-to-face interviews where photographs and fingerprints are collected from applicants. Mr Currie applied and paid an extra €142 (£103) for the firm's “priority” service on 6 April, but said the first available biometrics appointment on the Government's Visa4UK site was not until this week. He tried to contact Teleperformance to inform it of the urgency of his case, but was told the only way to “escalate” his query was by sending emails.
Mr Currie said he had “no issue” with the Government's handling of his case once it knew about his situation and that the problem had only arisen because there had been no rapid way of contacting the visa office in the first instance.
“If I lost a family member tomorrow in a car accident, I could not get to her funeral in a week,” he said. “I could not do it. There must be many other people who would have the same problem. They might not know it yet - and when they do, it'll be too late.”
Gerard Harrison, an immigration law consultant who often helps people with visa issues, said “appalling” delays were becoming a common occurrence.
“Some of them are matters so simple that you could telephone somebody to get it sorted out - but there is nobody to telephone,” he said.
He added that some of his clients had missed funerals due to UK visa delays, while one Australian man had even had to cancel his own wedding. While Teleperformance sometimes caused delays, the Home Office also had to shoulder the blame, he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are sorry to learn of Mr Eldridge's death. Given the compassionate circumstances in this case, Mr Currie's application was prioritised to ensure he could return to the UK as soon as possible.”
Teleperformance is being paid £300m over five years to deliver UK visa processing services. The firm declined to comment yesterday, but at the weekend a spokesman said: “First and foremost, our thoughts and best wishes are certainly with this family. We are an outsource partner of UK Visas and Immigration and we aim to provide excellent customer service at all times. We know there is always room to do better and so we are continuing to try and improve the customer experience while enforcing necessary and appropriate controls and guidelines.”
The Independent