MP condemns Home Office attempts to deport woman after 16 years in Scotland
Chennan Fei moved to Scotland as a child with her parents and is battling Home Office attempts to deport her.
A Chinese woman who moved to Scotland legally as a child is facing deportation following a Home Office decision her MP has branded “callous”.
Charity volunteer Chennan Fei has lived in Scotland for 16 years, but for the last five has been battling the Home Office’s attempts to send her to China.
Living in Renton, West Dunbartonshire, she came to Scotland at the age of 13 with her parents who were studying at Glasgow University.
Despite building her life in the UK, getting a degree at Edinburgh University and becoming engaged to a Scotsman, she faces deportation because her now-estranged parents did not renew their status with the Government.
The 30-year-old now faces a immigration appeal hearing in Glasgow on Thursday, a year after a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled that officials attempting to send her to the country she had not visited in 15 years had not acted in accordance with the law.
More than 60,000 people have signed a petition urging the Home Secretary to intervene to allow Chennan to remain in Scotland, and her MP has condemned the “appealing treatment”.
Martin Docherty-Hughes MP said: “Scotland has been Chennan’s home for more than half her life. It’s where she has grown up, been educated at school and university, and it’s where she met and fell in love with her fiance Duncan.
“After spending over 16 years building a life here in Scotland, the prospect of Chennan being torn away from her loved ones through no fault of her own has been deeply distressing.
“Chennan is clearly a bright and talented young woman who has a lot to offer Scotland, yet the UK Home Office has gone to considerable effort to force her from her home.
“It highlights once again the folly of the UK government’s hostile immigration policies which all too often lack compassion and common sense.
“Chennan has been treated appallingly by the Home Office and has my full support in challenging this callous move to remove her from her home here in West Dunbartonshire.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Legal proceedings are ongoing and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment.”
