Granny (91) fights deportation
In her bid to stay with her only child in Britain a local senior citizen will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
THE family of a 92-year-old former Port Shepstone resident, who is fighting for the right to remain in the United Kingdom with her only child, is trying to raise money to appeal to the Human Rights Court.
Myrtle Cothill visited her daughter, Mary Wills, in the United Kingdom on a six-month visa in February 2014. However, she found herself facing deportation back to South Africa after the United Kingdom Home Office turned down her application to remain with her daughter.
The frail South African woman has no family in South Africa and dearly wants to spend her final years with her only child. Her health problems include a chronic lung and heart condition and hearing and sight impairment. According to her daughter, she is not very mobile and needs care, but is financially independent and would not be a burden on the United Kingdom. However, the Home Office official told Mrs Cothill’s family that the application was not successful as Mrs Cothill’s condition was not deemed life-threatening.
Mrs Wills cannot go to South Africa to care for her mother as she cannot leave her British husband, who has Parkinson’s disease. Returning Mrs Cothill to South Africa would be an emotional wrench for the whole family. Mrs Wills believes it would probably kill her mother.
At her wits end, Mrs Wills organised a petition on Change.org to try to persuade the Home Office to show some compassion and change its mind. In the petition, her barrister, Jan Doerfel, has called on the Home Office to review its decision and to reinstate the rules that operated for the previous 40 years, which allowed elderly dependents to join British nationals or other settled persons if they could be accommodated and financially supported by their children or grandchildren without reliance on the state.
Now, in a last-ditch attempt to obtain permission for Mrs Cothill to stay in the United Kingdom, the family is trying to raise the £18 000 it is expected to cost to bring the matter before the European Court of Human Rights. Family members have started an appeal on the website ‘Go Fund Me’.
