Sad Story of a Woman Deported back to her Country with only £12 leaving behind her Brit Husband

A grandmother who lived in Britain for nearly 30 years was forcibly removed from the country on Sunday.
BuzzFeed News revealed Irene Clennell, 53, was being held in Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire because the government wanted to remove her to Singapore.
She is the main carer for her sick British husband, John, and has two British sons and a British granddaughter.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News from the plane on the runway at Edinburgh airport, she said she had just £12 in her pocket, nobody to stay with in Singapore, and no change of clothes.


Clennell, from Ouston, County Durham, said she didn’t have the chance to see her husband before being bundled off to the airport this morning.

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye properly,” she said. She was allowed a phone call to tell him the news, but was barely able to speak. “I was just in tears, I wasn’t able to say much,” she said.
Speaking on a phone provided by one of her flight escorts, she described how suddenly events had unfolded: “They just came to get me this morning and said they’ve already given me a chance. Now I’m on the plane. Four people are taking me to Singapore.
“I don’t know what I’ll do when I land. I called my sister [in Singapore] and she said she can’t put me up, so I just don’t know. How can I stay anywhere? I don’t have a wallet with me, I’ve got about £12 in my pocket. I don’t even have my clothes, they’re at home. I just have what they took from the detention centre.”

Clennell said she was told that if she has no money and nowhere to go she should contact the regional office of the International Organisation for Migration when she lands.
She is the latest victim of the government’s spousal visa system, which requires the British partner to prove earnings of at least £18,600 – and the couple being able to show long stretches of uninterrupted time living in the UK.

Clennell spent too long out of the country while looking after her dying parents in Singapore, which meant she lost her leave to remain. Her subsequent attempts to get a more permanent visa have failed and her last visitor visa expired in 2014. The Home Office said she lost her indefinite leave to remain in the UK because she spent time living in Singapore.