2 hours ago
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A distraught couple are appealing to the Home Office to expedite a visa decision and speedily grant permission for their eight-year-old daughter to join them in the UK after Hurricane Melissa left her homeless and destitute in Jamaica.
Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown is being cared for by her grandmother in Cash Hill, Hanover, a part of the island that was badly damaged by the storm. Her Jamaican mother, Kerrian Bigby, came to the UK to join her British father, Jerome Hardy, in April 2023. The couple married earlier this year.
The couple, who live in north London, have been saving up to pay the visa application fee of more than £4,000 to enable their daughter to join them in the UK. They applied for the settlement visa for her in June and are still waiting for the Home Office decision.
They say that after Hurricane Melissa, an urgent situation has become an emergency. Their lawyer and the couple’s local MP, Dawn Butler, have urged the Home Office to expedite making a decision on the visa.
Hardy, a telecommunications worker, said: “We are just waiting for a decision from the Home Office in the hope that we can jump on a plane to Kingston, rescue our daughter and bring her to safety in the UK.
“The family home in Cash Hill has been completely destroyed by the hurricane and Lati-Yana is living in one room at the moment with 15 other people. They are struggling to access food and water. There is no school and phone connectivity is difficult.”
Bigby, a care worker, said: “I am so distressed, I can’t eat or sleep. If I put any food in my mouth, I can’t eat it because I’m thinking about Lati-Yana who is struggling to get food.
“After the hurricane, my sister who lives in the same area as my daughter managed to make a phone call to me. She said: ‘We are all safe but everything has gone.’
“I haven’t managed to speak to Lati-Yana since the hurricane but we spoke on the phone shortly before it hit the island. She understood it was something dangerous and she said to me: ‘Mummy, if we survive the storm you will hear from us but if we don’t then take care of yourselves.’
“I am appealing to the Home Office to grant our daughter’s visa as a matter of urgency so we can bring her to safety in the UK.”
At least 28 deaths have been confirmed as a result of the category 5 hurricane, which struck Jamaica on 28 October. Earlier this week, rescue services said more than 70% of people on the island did not have access to electricity and about 6,000 people were still in emergency shelters.
Naga Kandiah, of MTC Solicitors, who is representing the family, said: “An eight-year-old girl has been separated from her parents not by choice but because her family needed time to save the exceptionally high fees required by the Home Office. They worked tirelessly, followed every rule and fulfilled every requirement, yet their child has been left thousands of miles away waiting for safety and the comfort of her parents’ arms.
“When Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, her home was destroyed. Overnight she went from a child waiting to be reunited with her parents to a child with no shelter, no security and no certainty about tomorrow. She is facing this devastation alone.
“We ask the Home Office to act swiftly and to bring this young girl to safety so she can be reunited with the parents who love her and who have done everything in their power to protect her.”
A Home Office spokesperson said:“All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the Immigration Rules.”
