Elderly widow, 92, to be deported to South Africa where she has no living family

Ashitha Nagesh 

Myrtle Cothill, 92, is facing deportation (Picture: Steve Reigate/N&S Syndication)

The Home Office is deporting a 92-year-old widow to South Africa, where she has no living relatives.
Myrtle Cothill was born under the British flag in 1924, and her father fought for Britain in World War I.
But now the pensioner will miss out on spending the ‘end of her days’ in Britain with her only child, because she’ll be flown out from Heathrow on Tuesday.
Myrtle’s husband died more than 40 years ago, but she survived on her own in South Africa with support from her friends and local church. However, as her community began to pass away and her health deteriorated, she realised she needed to be looked after by her daughter in the UK.

Myrtle with her daughter, Mary Wills (Picture: Steve Reigate/N&S Syndication)

Her daughter, Mary Wills, told the Guardian her elderly mum was told to contact the Red Cross for help when she got to South Africa because she has no living family there.
‘My mother is in a terrible state,’ Wills, 66, said. ‘She is just shaking and shaking. It is so cruel. We don’t know what to do.’

A Change.org petition set up by Myrtle’s barrister Jan Doerfel has had more than 55,000 signatures.
‘Suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and macular degeneration causing sight loss, Myrtle cannot walk unaided, has a chronic cough, poor vision, is hard of hearing and is experiencing increasing confusion,’ Doerfel wrote.

‘She is unable to care or cook for herself and relies on her daughter Mary for emotional physical support: Mary helps her mother with her personal care, housework, cooking and shopping.’
It goes on to say that Mary can’t move to South Africa with Myrtle because she has no right to live there, and Mary’s husband David suffers from Parkinson’s disease and COPD.

What are the rules if your elderly relative wants to stay in the UK?

The Home Office has very strict rules in place when it comes to adult relatives.

• An amendment of the immigration rule on adult dependent relatives came into force in July 2012
• It only allows British citizens, and other (non-EU) settled persons, to be joined by relatives when the long-term care is either not available or affordable in their original country of residence
• However, if allowed to stay these elderly relatives must pay for their care privately in the UK
• So only people who come from countries where medical care is more expensive than the UK, or is non-existent, will be allowed to stay with their relatives here
• The previous rule, which was in place for more than 40 years, allowed British nationals and other people settled in the UK to be joined by their parents or grandparents aged over 65 years if they could be financially supported by their families

Myrtle and her daughter have been publicly fighting against the deportation order since last year, but the Home Office claimed the widow’s health problems ‘were not deemed to be life-threatening’.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘All applications are considered on their individual merits and in line with the Immigration Rules. The decision made on this case has been upheld by two separate, independent Tribunals which considered the full range of evidence presented.’