Stunell battles Home Office incompetence

1.36.52pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 20th Mar 2008

Home office incompetence is destroying lives of hard-working families, according to Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell. This week Mr Stunell will challenge Ministers in Parliament over the cases of two local people who have lost their jobs and are struggling to support their families due to long delays in issuing paperwork by the Home office

Mr Stunell has been given time in the Commons to spell out the ever increasing number of bureaucratic hoops individuals are made to jump through when applying to renew working visas. He will highlight the case of a Hazel Grove mother who had worked caring for elderly people and now faces deportation to the Philippines with her two young children and also the now unemployed father of a terminally ill child who is unable to continue to pay for the specialist care she needs. In both cases, the parents had been employed legally in skilled positions.

Commenting, Mr Stunell said:

"The system is failing badly and plays havoc with the lives of vulnerable people.

"Families are suffering locally, stuck in a queue that may leave them in limbo for up to five years, told they are needed, but denied the paperwork to prove it.

"I am calling on the Minister to ensure that these cases and others like them are resolved quickly. It makes no sense that people who are capable and eligible to contribute to the UK workforce are being refused the chance simply because the Home Office has got itself into such a muddle."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. The title of the debate is 'Border and immigration Agency's procedures relating to qualification for indefinite leave to remain' and will take place on Thursday, 20 March.

2. The full text of the debate will be available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pahansard.htm from Friday, 21 March.