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British Government being urged not to deport woman with Jamaican roots

From RJR News Online

The British Government’s plan to deport a former nurse whose Windrush Generation father served in the Royal Air Force is being cited by politicians and campaigners in the UK demanding an immediate end to what they described as the government’s cruel and inhumane hostile environment policy.

Sharon Vitalis has been threatened with ejection from the UK, which would separate her from her two British-born children – one of whom is just 12 years old– despite living in the country for most of  her life.

According to Britain’s Independent newspaper, the 45-year-old woman, who worked for the National Health Service for more than 15 years, was born in Germany while her father was deployed to the country during service with the RAF.  Her family moved back to the UK months after her birth.

Unlike her UK born siblings, who have never faced problems with their status, she has been told she is not British on the ground that she was not born within the nation’s boundaries.

Ms Vitalis lived in the UK until the age of six, when she moved to the Caribbean with her mother and siblings to go to school.

She returned when she was in her early 20s and began working as a nurse.

She faced no problem for 17 years, during which she gave birth to a daughter in 1999 and a son in 2005.

Her partner later moved to the US after the couple split.

In 2013, when Ms Vitalis went to collect her 15-year-old daughter from Gatwick Airport after living with her father, she was stopped by immigration officials and taken to a detention centre.

Ms Vitalis was later reunited with her daughter, but she was issued with deportation proceedings and therefore was dismissed from her National Health Service job.

She is currently waiting for an appeal decision in October and is unable to work or claim benefits in the meantime.

The case has emerged amid mounting criticism over the Home Office’s hostile environment following the Windrush scandal, which exposed that thousands of Commonwealth citizens had been wrongly targeted by immigration officials, with some detained and deported,  costing then Home Secretary Amber Rudd her job.

For more on this story go to: http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/british-government-being-urged-not-to-deport-woman-with-jamaican-roots

IMAGE: Socialist Worker

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