February 15, 2019
A lawyer for an elderly Iranian couple fighting removal from Britain has said they face “living the rest of their days without their family.”
Mozaffar Saberi, 83, and his wife, Rezvan Habibimarand, 73, bought their Edinburgh, Scotland, apartment in the late 1970s. While they have lived in the city on and off for 40 years, they never sought UK citizenship.
Their legal team claim the couple should be allowed to remain on human rights grounds. They argue that they depend on support from nearby relatives and also play an important role caring for their severely autistic grandson.
The Home Office has said they have no right to remain. Their final appeal against removal is due to be heard February 25.
Since April 2000, Saberi and Habibimarand have held several visitor’s visas. With their own health deteriorating and their desire to watch their 11 grandchildren grow up, they made a human rights application in April 2013 to stay in the UK.
It came less than a year after immigration rules were tightened by the home secretary, the British term for an interior minister. The home secretary was then Theresa May, now the prime minister.
Two human rights applications have been refused by the Home Office.
The couple’s son, Navid Saberi, told BBC Scotland: “We are not coping very well. It is shocking the level of hostility we get from Home Office—you are treated not like a human, but like a number.”
Prior to 2012, the couple could have applied to stay under the adult dependent relative rule, which was tightened to reduce migration. As a result, John Vassiliou, a partner at McGill & Co. Solicitors, which is handling the case, said it has become “impossible” for anyone to bring parents into the UK permanently.
He said: “The criteria that have to be satisfied are so severe that I have yet to meet anyone who has been able to meet them.
He said the grandparents “are showing normal things for people their age—frailty, reduced mobility, they take various medications. They do rely heavily on their children, but they still play a very important part in their children’s lives on an emotional level. A 70- and 80-year-old living out the rest of their days there without their family is really sad.”
He said the couple also look after their non-verbal teenage grandson to help their daughter, who is a single parent and a hospital nurse.
The boy’s condition means he can only communicate using a tablet and is susceptible to high stress levels, particularly around strangers.
Months before the couple’s second application, a child psychology expert told the Home Office: “His grandparents and their residence are essential parts of his social, psychological and physical environment.”
However, the second application from October 2016 was refused—a move that prompted the couple’s legal team to launch a judicial review.
The Home Office conceded and reconsidered the evidence on the grandson’s autism, but again refused the application.
In a letter, officials questioned the couple’s ability to care for their grandson when “you both are elderly and require help yourselves.” They also suggested the boy’s mother give up work and “seek assistance from social services.”
The letter concludes the couple’s applications “show total disregard for the immigration laws of the UK.”
Vassiliou branded the letter “galling.”
Of the couple’s grandson, he said: “He relies on his grandparents for emotional care. When he’s with them, he’s relaxed, calm and happy, and when he’s without them, he is not. Removal would impact everyone in their family, particularly the child and his mother. I don’t know if he would understand or know why his grandparents suddenly aren’t there.”
Their son added: “They asked my sister to seek benefits and use public money, which is absolutely shocking. We are all working really hard to provide care. We don’t want public funds.”
He added, “The level of care we provide for them here cannot be provided for them in Iran. They are elderly. If they go back to Iran, that emotional and psychological dependency, which is mutual, would not be there.”
