UK Home Office Tells Blind Nigerian Pensioner She Can "Go Home" to India
The UK Home Office has told Comfort, a 67-year-old blind Nigerian pensioner, that she can safely "go home" to India. Comfort says she has never visited India and has no connection with it.
Comfort arrived in the UK in 2000. She went blind shortly after arriving, due to acute glaucoma, a serious eye condition. She has lived in the country for 26 years.
After 20 years, she was granted leave to remain under the long residence rules, which allow people who have lived in the UK for a long time to stay. Comfort says she got that permission in 2022. The route then requires visa renewal every 30 months for a further 10 years before a person can apply for indefinite leave to remain, which is permission to live in the UK permanently.
Lawyers at Refugee and Migrant Justice asked the Home Office to grant Comfort indefinite leave to remain immediately, because of her age and disability. The department rejected that request. Its refusal letter said she could return to Nigeria because there are services for blind people there. It also concluded: "Your circumstances are not so severe or lacking in potential treatment in India that it would warrant indefinite leave to remain in this case."
The case comes as new settlement rules, announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, are being applied. Under those rules, Comfort would likely have to keep renewing her visa for 20 years before she could become eligible for indefinite leave to remain, which would be in her 80s.
Freedom of information data obtained by Refugee and Migrant Justice includes a 103-year-old woman from Pakistan who will not be eligible for settlement until she is 123. The group has used such figures to show how long some people must wait under the current system.
Nick Beales, head of campaigning at Migrant and Refugee Justice, is supporting Comfort.
