Desperate husband’s plea

Photo: Picture: ANTHONY MILLER

Heartbroken . . . Kenneth Downs and his wife, Marly, face being separated as she is threatened with deportation

‘Please don’t throw my wife out of the UK’

A HEARTBROKEN husband said his Filipina wife could be facing deportation because of an administration error.

Kenneth Downs (66), from Dunwood Park Courts, Shaw, married Marly (31) last October while she was on a six-month fiancée visa in the UK.

But an error when applying for a two-year extension to stay means she must now leave the UK or face deportation.

Mr Downs said he paid an agent in the Philippines £1,500 to carry out the paperwork.

The visa was issued on June 18, 2008, but Mr Downs claims the agent said it would only come into force when Marly entered the UK on July 18.

However, when Mr Downs applied for the two-year extension on January 15, he discovered he was too late.

He said: “I feel really angry because this has been a genuine mistake.

“They say we have no right of appeal but everyone has a right.

“It has really knocked us, we’re not sleeping and my wife has lost weight with the stress.

“She is in a terrible state.”

The couple met on the internet, in 2005, and fell in love when Mrs Downs first visited the UK two years ago.

Mr Downs then spent six weeks with her family in the Philippines before he proposed.

Mr Downs says he has spent over £5,000 already in a bid to keep his wife in this country.

And, he added, if she is deported he will struggle to find the extra £2,000 for the agent fees, her return flight and visa, should she be allowed to come back.

A Home Office letter said Mrs Downs has to leave the UK — or face being deported — because she missed the six-month deadline.

Mr Downs said: “We’ve got a lovely home, good friends and Marly is really happy here.

“I have emphysema and wouldn’t be able to live in the Philippines because of the heat. She’s my lifeline.

“My solicitor can’t understand why they won’t allow it because of a genuine mistake.

“I’ve written to our MP, Phil Woolas, who said he couldn’t help but he would write a letter strongly backing her return. If he can do it once she’s gone, why can’t he do it now?

“I paid an agent to deal with all this but now I can’t get hold of her.

“If Marly gets deported, I don’t know if she will be allowed back.”

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “All applications to stay in the UK are considered on their individual merits, taking into account all evidence provided and in accordance with immigration rules.”.