Despite an internet petition with over 65,000 signatures urging her to stay, her application for indefinite leave to remain in the UK was denied. Image Courtesy: @rutbapanjabda/X
Community campaigners in the UK are fighting hard for an elderly woman who faces deportation to India despite living in the country for 14 years. Gurmit Kaur has no family to return to in India and the 78-year-old widow estranged from her children in the UK.
She has been living in Smethwick, West Midlands, and is known locally as a “kind auntie” by the town’s Sikh community who have adopted her.
Despite an internet petition with over 65,000 signatures urging her to stay, her application for indefinite leave to remain in the UK was denied.
Gurmit Kaur’s immigration struggle
Gurmit Kaur, hailing from India, made the UK her home in 2009 when she attended a wedding. Since then, she has become an integral part of the Sandwell community, actively contributing to local initiatives, especially the foodbank.
Initially, Gurmit stayed with her son, citing financial constraints preventing her return to Punjab. However, she later got separated from her children and forced to rely on the charity of people in the community.
Despite her personal challenges, Gurmit has dedicated a significant portion of her time to volunteering at local food banks.
Being an undocumented migrant, UK Visas and Immigration mandates her return to India. This decision, despite her lack of familial ties there, has sparked widespread support from the Smethwick community, which has embraced the septuagenarian.
Gurmit’s plight garnered backing from over 60,000 individuals who supported her desire to remain in the UK. Unfortunately, a recent decision by the Home Office has cast a shadow over her future, placing it in uncertain territory.
‘Very Kind woman’
More recently, “We Are All Gurmit Kaur” has been running across social media platforms as the local community continues to rally around the widow.
“Gurmit Kaur has no family to turn to in the UK and no family to return to in Punjab. So, the local Sikh community of Smethwick has adopted her,” reads the petition on change.org.
“Gurmit Kaur applied to stay but has been refused even though she has no family to return to in Punjab, India. Gurmit is a very kind woman, even though she has nothing she is still generous and will always give what she can, when she can. Most of her days are spent volunteering at the local gurdwara,” it read.
Gurmit told Birmingham Live that if she returned to India, she would have nowhere to stay and no place to call home because she has no family there.
“I’m afraid of the loneliness and the impact on my mental health if I go back there alone.
“Smethwick is my genuine home; it is where I work to serve the community, where I give back, and where I know and love the people who have become my family.
“The people in this temple have become like family to me,” she said.
UK Home Office defends decision
The UK Home Office maintains that Kaur is in contact with people in her village in Punjab and that she would be able to re-adjust to life there.
Gurmit had previously been advised that her voluntary demonstrated that she was ‘fit and healthy’ enough to be sent to India, and that she must leave voluntarily or face deportation.
While the Home Office acknowledged that Kaur had ‘formed up a private life’ in the UK, it concluded that there were no ‘significant obstacles’ to her reintegration in India, given that she had spent the most of her life in the country and still spoke Punjabi.
Salman Mirza, an immigration advisor for the Brushstroke Community Project, who started the petition and is among those helping Kaur through the visa appeals process, told BBC that her ordeal has been torture for her.
“She has a derelict house in the village, with no roof, and will have to find heating, food, and resources in a village she hasn’t been to in 11 years. It’s like water torture, a slow death. She’s never had the right to work and provide for herself,” he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said that while it cannot comment on individual cases, “all applications are carefully considered on their individual merits and on the basis of the evidence provided”.
“We urge the Home Office to regularise her status, and that of all undocumented migrants in the UK, so that she and thousands like her can live without fear of being detained and deported, and protect themselves and their families, especially during this pandemic.”
With inputs from PTI
