Fly In A Spider's Web - A Truly Tragic UK Immigration Experience

That's how we felt when we were stopped in Dunkirk by UK Borders Agency. We werent expecting any trouble and as an expat it felt familiar to hear an english voice again, with me was my American fiancee and we had just been reunited in France after she had returned from a 6 month trip to Oregon, USA.

We had already lived together in Ireland for 3 years but her residence card had expired in the meantime, I foresaw no problem as she would get a 3 month entry and we were just passing through the UK to Ireland, and we planned to come back to England for Christmas to be with my elderly mother as we had done for the last 3 years.

Tired from a 500 mile drive we happily showed our passports and Monica was quite transparent feeling like she had nothing to hide,she didn't plan to come back to Ireland to live, just to gather her things and spend some time together.

My sister had offered her house in the Cotswolds if she wanted to stay in England.The officer, (name removed for privacy reasons),fed her questions which she answered disingeniously, whether she had an address in the States to which she replied no. He relayed this to his counterpart in Dublin in such a way that they refused her entry to Ireland, when I spoke to them without his input a month later they had no problem giving her 3 months, so I don't know what he told them.

I still assumed we would be given entry to England and he asked us about our finances and we were able to show him 2000 euros. He dismissed this as insignificant so Monica went to look for a financial statement in her papers in the back of the car including unopened post. Atkins grabbed these and went to his office, on his return he said he had opened her post and gone through her papers and found a prescription for anti depressants and something about euthanasia that I was not privy to.

He declared her mentally unfit, it's true Monica was depressed and I had persuaded her to get the prescription in case she felt she could not cope, but she had never used it.More damning a good friend of ours had offered to copy her signature as her Irish immigration application for a new card had been returned with something unsigned.This was still in a sealed envelope as she had not got round to opening her post and was without her knowledge. Neither was there any motive of fraud or profit.

On these grounds he refused her entry and blackened her file with these allegations. We had no choice but watch our ferry go without us, his attitude was horrible. He asked what her last job was and she told him she worked as a loader at Fedex for 15 years. He scornfully said the UK didn't need any loaders but at no time did she have any intention or need to work being entirely financially independent. He wanted to know what make and year her car was as if that was some kind of character reference.

To me he said 'I see your passport was issued in South America Sir, we don't like world citizens but as you are a British citizen I have to let you in. Presumably referring to my ex-pat status.

If you want to have your character assassinated this is your man! I asked to see his supervisor and pleaded with him that Monica was at a very vulnerable time, spoke no french and I was concerned for her safety, but he just told me to stay with her. I tried to explain to him that the trip had put me into debt and if I did not get back to work I would lose my job, to no avail.

Unlike Monica I am a struggling self employed farmer and had to get back to tend to my farm. But at no point were we allowed to go online and prove her assets worth more than half a million, she just lived off the interest. I had to take her to the station to go through the expensive and lengthy process to get a visa and I bitterly regret that I carried on the journey without her as all our tickets were non refundable and I wanted to have a home and business intact for us to return to.

I thought I'd see her in a few weeks, but that time was the last time I ever saw her. She paid 180 euros in total and had to surrender her passport so she was trapped in Paris in a hotel,alone and depressed.The weeks turned into months, she missed Thanksgiving and was refused the first time because they said they did'nt believe her bank statement written in black and white.

In disbelief she tried again and her last message to me was that she was going to be stuck there for Christmas.I told her to demand her passport and join me in Ireland where she had permission, once I had told them the true situation without (name removed for privacy reasons) twisting her words,even if she was not allowed into the UK.

But it was too late, on December 19th as I was getting ready to meet her she took her own life in despair. She was only 42 in good health, a lover of the outdoors and a graduate with everything to live for until this kangaroo court pushed her over the edge. As an Englishman I'm ashamed and indignant that these arrogant power trippers are employed by the Border Agency, so watch out, they have no compassion and are full of xenophobia.