Thread by @AmberMurrey

Marcy, my Cameroonian mother in-law, had her visitor visa refused by @ukhomeoffice because she is retired & 'widowed'.

Our family has had too many insulting, dehumanising, inferiating experiences w/ the HO.

Yet the pain, the rage. My trembling, numb fingers. 1/

My mother in-law is NOT a widow.

She has been married for 25 years.

This was clear ALL over her application, if someone @ukhomeoffice had been troubled to actually read it, OR if there was a system of accountability for their egregious errors

I mentioned, again, her marital status (& 'social ties') in my letter of invitation, which was submitted with our materials:

'She will return to her husband, children, and grandchildren in Cameroon at the end of her vacation with us'

After weeks awaiting the decision (w/ Marcy packing djansang, ndop pagnes & gifts for our children) we were told that she doesn't have sufficient 'social ties' in the place where she has
lived
worked
laughed
raised children for 65 yrs

in the house she has owned for 40 yrs

We were told that we have no right to appeal the decision.

The multiple errors in our rejection letter (blatant fabrications & grammatical repetitions that would get you sacked from most customer service jobs) are also the result of HO pressures on caseworkers to 'hit targets' & incentives to reject

theguardian.com/world/2022/nov…

To be clear: IF Marcy was a widow,
SHE.
SHOULD.
STILL.
BE.
ENTITLED.
TO.
TRAVEL.

My Cameroonian sister in-law also had a UK visitor visa rejected on the basis that she was 'childless' (yes, HO actually used that term) & 'unmarried'.

blog.politics.ox.ac.uk/travelling-uk-…

Apparently, you must show evidence of having a partner/offspring if you are a woman & want to visit the UK.

Cuz women don't have other meaningful social ties

Meanwhile, my daughters had their visas rejected on the basis that their father was not living in the UK.

theguardian.com/education/2019….

We were a fortunate family. The HO reversed their decision and allowed my children entry to the UK after letters of support from our MP @AnnelieseDodds, the brilliant @HelenMountfield, and reporting in the Guardian by @AnnaFazack1 (a story picked up later by BBC, NPR, RT, etc.)

Following the @ukhomeoffice's refusal of my children's visa, I have had dozens and dozens of immigrant professionals and academics contact me for advice

They have one thing in common: they are all WORKING MOTHERS whose children are denied UK visas

This is why, when we see British government officials decrying foreign gender discrimination, or the lack of freedom of mobility for women in other parts of the world because they need a man's permission to travel, we scoff bitterly at the hypocrisy in our house.

It is a toxic combination of patriarchy, racism, and imperialism at the HO (mixed w/ 'general incompetence', according to their own whistleblowers) that they systematically contrive reasons to refuse visas for women of colour

theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/a…

Yes, this is just more bleak, xenophobic, incompetence from the #hostileenvironment in a long line of the same. None of it is original or surprising. If I complain, I see British acquaintances check out. It's tiresome & banal.

This is all normal in today's Britain

Or, I am given patronising advice that feels more like gaslighting:

'Apply again, but supply more evidence of Marcy's marriage this time'.

'Apply again, but pay a solicitor to submit it next time'.

My mother in-law is married. We said so up and down on the pages of her visa application. What is to say that we don't reapply and she is refused entry again...

...this time for not owning a dog?

Or not having enough cousins?

Or because her own father is dead.

You know what they say about repetition & insanity.

After 5 of my family members have had their visas refused for racist, sexist, nonsensical, or false reasons, the UK has remained consistent.

I am the one who keeps struggling & hoping for change in spite of all the evidence

So, should we apply for Marcy again?

Does my family have the energy for the emotional labour involved?

Do we want to be subjected to more relentlessly cold-blooded rejections? How much do we sacrifice our wellbeing?

How much more money do we waste?

How many more telephone calls can I have explaining to loved ones (or even strangers who contact me after the publication of the @guardian article on our family) that the HO refusals are capricious, intentionally callous, designed to maim

- but not the fault of the immigrant

How many more conversations with my children about the kind of country that I have brought them to live in?

One where their grandma is not allowed to visit them because she is African.

That we left the US because of anti-Black racism, only to find its British variant.

How do I answer when my 12-year-old asks,

'Is it possible to live a dignified life as a Black immigrant in the UK?'

I am exhausted, but not defeated. I know the system is this cruel by design.

The HO rakes in hundreds of millions in visa fees every year & can issue arbitrary, false, incorrect refusals w/ impunity because visitors are not entitled to appeal decisions

ein.org.uk/news/times-hom…

The #HostileEnvironment can only persist in a context of accepting, willing, subjects who consent through deed or inaction.

Where are the British institutions with the fortitude to stand up to the Home Office's racist sexism, the chaotic incompetence, the impunity?