JALAL Ibrahimi is dreading Christmas – because he fears his wife and three children face the festive period in a war zone after tragedy, Covid and the Home Office split the family apart.
The 29-year-old entrepreneur last saw partner Safora and their Glasgow-born sons and daughter in February when they left for Afghanistan without him.
He stayed on to run his Paisley takeaway Fazil King while they attended to a family tragedy, a car crash that left Safora’s relatives badly injured and claimed the life of their baby. They’d planned to return one month later, but when the pandemic hit their flights were cancelled.
Nine months later, they’re still there because Safora’s leave to remain in the UK ran out before she was able to return.
The couple and their MP Alison Thewliss have been petitioning the Home Office ever since.
But the Glasgow Central MP says she can’t even get “basic answers” from the department, with officials repeatedly saying they are “continuing to liaise with the relevant business areas and casework teams regarding Ibrahimi’s situation and will provide a full response as soon as we can”.
Meanwhile, oldest boy Shams, who should have entered primary this year, has missed out on months of schooling.
His brother Habib is out of nursery and baby sister Adbah, one, has not received her routine inoculations.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government has launched a military offensive against the Taliban in the area where the young siblings remain and 28-year-old Safora, who volunteers with the Glasgow Afghan United community group, says they’re increasingly desperate to return: “The children are very upset, they’re always saying ‘let’s go home’. The days are long and the nights are long.
“They’re not in school, their vaccinations are not up to date, they are always sick here, and there is fighting – we don’t know what will happen to us tomorrow here.
“My message to the Home Office is I had no idea this pandemic would hit, I just went to see my family. Now there are four of us with uncertain futures and we are living with anxiety. I want to come back home, my children want to come back home.
“Our home is in Glasgow – I want them to grant me the permission to go to my own home.”
Jalal, whose parents sent him to live with an uncle in Scotland to escape war 20 years ago, says the upcoming festive period makes the need to reunite more urgent than ever: “We all sit down on Christmas Day for a big dinner. It’s not a religious celebration, but we always do it.
“My family are not here and I miss them all the time. I call them every day and my big boy asks, ‘how is my room, is it still there? Is my bicycle still there?’.
The younger two are too small to talk to me on the phone and I’m worried they’re forgetting me.
“I see all my friends at home with their kids, and where are my kids?
“The school keeps calling me, the nursery keeps calling me. They’re asking when the children will be there. I don’t know what to tell them.”
Thewliss, who met with Home Office minister Chris Philp over the case last month, called the departments lack of action “deeply disturbing”.
She said: “The Home Office has form when it comes to keeping families apart, and this case lays bare the shocking lack of empathy and compassion that I have, unfortunately, become all too familiar with.
“Despite repeated follow-ups, no information has been forthcoming.”
The Home Office did not initially respond to a request for a comment.
However, a spokesperson has now said the department is “working on a solution” for families like the Ibrahimis.
The statement reads: “We understand that some people who have travelled overseas are unable to return to the UK before the expiry of their leave to enter or remain in the UK, and we are actively working on a solution to this issue.
“Coronavirus travel restrictions will be taken into consideration for anyone whose leave has expired while overseas, and is applying for further leave.”
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