Severely ill widower’s deportation threat

DESPERATE plea . . . Hakeem Muhammad Haleem, Mehwish Nadeem and Manahal Nadeem

A DESPERATE son is battling a Home Officer order to deport his severely ill father back to Pakistan.

Widower Hakeem Muhammad Haleem (77), who is mostly bed-ridden, is being cared for by his son Muhammad Nadeem (46) and daughter-in-law Mehwish Nadeem (26), in South Hill Street, Glodwick, with their four-year-old daughter Manahal.

Mr Haleem — from Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, came to the UK for a visit in October 2010 with his wife Irshada Begum and Mrs Nadeem, who was then a new bride.

His wife’s health worsened and she was unable to get treatment in the UK so returned to Pakistan in February 2011 where she was told her diabetes was untreatable. She died in April 2011.

Since then Mr Haleem has been unable to return to Pakistan as he has mobility issues and health problems including dementia, Parkinson’s disease and blindness in one eye. He has also been a stroke victim. He uses a wheelchair.

Mr Nadeem said: “He’s deteriorated a lot. He’s completely limited, his vision isn’t there, he can’t hear properly. I give him his medicines and he sleeps all day. He has more medicine than food.

“I try to take him out in the wheelchair so his mind stays active. My mum’s gone, now they will send him away.”

Mr Nadeem insists his father would have no one to look after him if he returned to Pakistan. HIs application to stay in the UK was refused by a court in London two years ago and a bid to appeal rejected. The Home Office served a notice confirming he was liable to be removed.

Mr Haleem has been authorised temporary admission to the UK, subject to his residing at his son’s address and reporting to a Home Office centre in Salford. He failed to report to the centre in March and has another chance on June 23, or could be detained. Mr Nadeem says his father has difficulty being taken anywhere and has offered to go in his place, but the centre has refused this.

Mr Nadeem works at Manchester Academy and does night shifts in a factory. He can take financial responsibility for his father’s care.

“He’s seriously ill, I have all the evidence to show it. How can they deport him? Where are his human rights?

“There is no one to look after him - I have given the Home Office proof. I have given them the medical reports. If they deport him, where will they send him? Here I can give him financial support. I have my wife to help.”

Since July 2012, changes to the immigration rules have raised the bar for foreign-born adult dependants. One change is the need to demonstrate that an applicant needs long-term personal care not available in their home country - making it difficult for adult dependants of British citizens or settlers to join their family in the UK.

“I said fine, let’s go to Pakistan,” said Mr Nadeem. “But we have a daughter here and she doesn’t want to go.

“The doctor said anything could happen to him at any time. I see him getting more depressed each day.”

A spokesman from the Home Office said: “All applications are considered on their individual merits, including any exceptional or compassionate circumstances and in accordance with the immigration rules.

Mr Nadeem has started a petition to have his father get permission to remain in the UK. Sign it at www.change.org/p/home-office-stop-my-sick-father-s-deportation.