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Tragic dad issues ultimatum
10:43am Friday 9th May 2008
ARNEL Cabrera is ready to throw in the towel over his fight to remain in Swindon.
The 38-year-old Filipino has set the Home Office a deadline of next Wednesday to resolve his long-running visa dispute.
I feel that if Mr Cabrera left now it would let the Home Office off the hook and give them an excuse.
Anne Snelgrove
But South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove says his exasperation with the immigration authorities would let the Home Office off the hook.
His wife Mayra died at Great Western Hospital during childbirth in May 2004 when an epidural anaesthetic was mistakenly injected into her arm rather than the space of her spinal cord.
He had been allowed to remain in Swindon because she worked at as a nurse at the hospital.
But her death changed Arnel's immigration status and he was told by the Home Office he was no longer welcome.
Since a jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing at Mayra's inquest in Trowbridge earlier this year, he has been living with friends in Eldene but is desperate to stay in the town and bring up his son Zac.
And he says his motivation behind setting the authorities a deadline is so he can take Zac on holiday for a fourth birthday treat.
However, Mrs Snelgrove, pictured, says Arnel's deadline could hinder rather than help his plight.
She said: "This needs due process and cases like this can take up to six months.
"I feel that if Mr Cabrera left now it would let the Home Office off the hook and give them an excuse.
"Unfortunately, if he did go back there would be nothing I could do for him.
"For the sake of a matter of months it could make the difference to two lives."
Arnel said he has asked the Home Office to return his passport if they fail to allow him to stay permanently by Wednesday.
If he leaves the country before his application is approved he will not be allowed to return.
He said in a statement: "I have been unable to return to the Philippines during this difficult period and I desperately miss my young son, Zachary.
"I have promised him a holiday on May 17 as a birthday treat, which I am not prepared to cancel under any circumstances as I have missed his last three birthdays."
Arnel's bid to stay in Swindon had been backed by Wiltshire coroner David Masters, Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust chief executive Lyn Hill-Tout and some of the town's prominent politicians.
A Home Office spokesman said leaving the country would invalidate Arnel's claim to stay in the UK.
Your Say YourSwindon
Terence, Swindon says...
11:02am Fri 9 May 08
If Mr Carbera honours his ultimatum and does indeed go home I will be surprised.
Oxford, Toothill says...
11:04am Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery, Swindon says...
11:10am Fri 9 May 08
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon says...
11:21am Fri 9 May 08
Terence, Swindon says...
1:09pm Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery, Swindon says...
2:06pm Fri 9 May 08
Terence wrote:Much tougher ones than this!
Oxford, you could always emigrate if you are ashamed to be British. I'm rather afraid however that wherever you went you'd encounter similar immigration laws and cases such as this.
Taxpower, Swinetown says...
2:18pm Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery wrote:Deportations, tougher immigration rules blah blah, I don't see girls and boys on a night out being so bothered about foreigners.
Well I am very sorry forn this man but as Frontiers says it doesn't qualify him to stay here. The country has been overwhelmed as it is since 1997. Britain cannot, nor should it, take everyone who wants to come here. It's about time more deportations were made.
I would even say that if there wasnt immigrants in this country, there would be very little UK births and marriages. Thanks to the immigrants stamina this country is still growing.
Taxpower, Swinetown says...
2:19pm Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery wrote:Deportations, tougher immigration rules blah blah, I don't see girls and boys on a night out being so bothered about foreigners.
Well I am very sorry forn this man but as Frontiers says it doesn't qualify him to stay here. The country has been overwhelmed as it is since 1997. Britain cannot, nor should it, take everyone who wants to come here. It's about time more deportations were made.
I would even say that if there wasnt immigrants in this country, there would be very little UK births and marriages. Thanks to the immigrants stamina this country is still growing.
P S Altery, Swindon says...
2:43pm Fri 9 May 08
Taxpower, Swinetown says...
3:04pm Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery wrote:OK point taken, to your opinion which child should be allowed in or to stay, this guys son? or the Walcot guys son stranded in Thailand? what gives the other more rights ?
Sorry son, this doesn't wash anymore. Net immigation of 50,000 was fine in 1997. An open door policy is not. All the planning assumptions in this country have been made on a fairly static population, housing, transport, education, law and order, healthcare. What none of the above have been geared up, funded for, is this massive overnight increase in the population. Which is why the prisons are overcrowded, which is why prisoners who should not be let out are being released, which is why schools in the SE, not having had the funding, can't cope with the pupils being dumped on their doorstep. Education has been compromised as a result. Everyone realises immigration is good thing, most people relaise that the Govt's immigration policy has been a disaster. Which I suppose has nothing really to do with the story. This chap, despite his tragic circumstances, has absolutely no right to reside here.
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
4:27pm Fri 9 May 08
Arnel should be allowed to stay! This family has been through enough.
who dat?, says...
7:40pm Fri 9 May 08
Oxford, Toothill says...
7:51pm Fri 9 May 08
Gem, North Swindon says...
8:01pm Fri 9 May 08
Oxford, Toothill says...
8:04pm Fri 9 May 08
Terence, Swindon says...
8:05pm Fri 9 May 08
'...the Wiltshire coroner, David Masters said: "This is extraordinary. In view of the verdict reached by the jury following a long and detailed inquest and in view of my comments."
Talk about pomposity! Why should the jury disregard the law because it goes against a coroner's (what business had he there anyway? He's a coroner and we know how the wife died) emotional feelings? In my opinion, the decision was in no way extraordinary.
Oxford, Toothill says...
8:33pm Fri 9 May 08
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
8:54pm Fri 9 May 08
P S Altery, Swindon says...
9:20pm Fri 9 May 08
hometown, Swindon England says...
10:47pm Fri 9 May 08
quote
hometown, Swindon England says...
10:56pm Fri 9 May 08
Frontier(s), says...
6:43am Sat 10 May 08
Mumstheword wrote:Why is it a disgrace?
What a bloody disgrace! I am ashamed to be British this evening. I am so sorry for this man and his son. I tried :( I wrote to the home secretary and Mrs Snelgrove both. God what must he think of Britain.
The man is not British and has no legal right, whatsoever, to remain here.
It would have been a travesty of immigration law if he had been granted permission to stay.
And why on earth did you suppose Anne Snelgrove might have been able to help this man? She's far more concerned about Japanese whales.
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon says...
9:20am Sat 10 May 08
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
10:01am Sat 10 May 08
I myself was attacked, beaten up and mugged by an Albanian gang in 2002.
That is a terrible experience to have gone through :(
(((((hugs))))) from the uncool rock chick :)
RFM said:
Mumstheword, it is a tough world out there
Dont I bloody know it Robert! And yes I see your points.
Terence, Swindon says...
1:30pm Sat 10 May 08
Frontier(s), says...
3:57pm Sat 10 May 08
But they are definitely not British. Ask them yourself what they believe they are, first and foremost.
The answer, I guarantee you, will not be 'British'.
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
8:05pm Sat 10 May 08
Anyway, isn't that a different subject? I thought that we were talking about a man who this country has failed. A man who has suffered the loss of his wife and his right to stay in our country.
P S Altery, Swindon says...
9:10pm Sat 10 May 08
Terence wrote:Unwelcome guests then?
P S Altery - If you are referring to the Ridgeway School incident when stating "guests in our country think it is acceptable to attack schoolboys with hammers" you would be incorrect as to my knowledge the perpetrators of that heinous crime are British citizens born in this country and can in no way be described a 'guests'.
Frontier(s), says...
11:27pm Sat 10 May 08
I thought that we were talking about a man who this country has failed. A man who has suffered the loss of his wife and his right to stay in our country.
Absolute rubbish.
This country has not failed him at all.
He has no legal right to remain and has been told that.
You are confusing emotion with reality and, with respect, it makes you look as thoguh you don't understand what is actually happening in this case.
Having said that, your posts are nearly always overly emotive nonsense that has no basis in reality.
And, yes, I'm more than prepared for you to respond telling everyone that's a 'good thing'.
It isn't.
Terence, Swindon says...
11:58am Sun 11 May 08
They are British and they are a problem which we all have to confront, attempting to deny them their British identity (however strong or weak it is) only exacerbates problems. If those who are descended from recent immigration are told that they are not British but 'guests' it is to be expected that they will reclude into other more stable identifications which are less likely to be rejected by others and regrettably tend to be of a radical nature.
Frontier - Your comments imply that Britishness is incompatible with other identifications (and one in particular I believe) when in actuality it need not be so.
Frontier(s), says...
12:55pm Sun 11 May 08
Regardless of what the media/NuLabour would have you believe, most immigrants (and their 'British' offspring) are more than happy not to integrate.
You only have to look at the areas that have high ethnic populations to see the evidence that a home from home is preferable to them than what is already in existence.
Although, in some ways, it's hard to blame them for that being their preference.
Terence, Swindon says...
6:57pm Sun 11 May 08
P S Altery, Swindon says...
7:13pm Sun 11 May 08
Frontier(s), says...
10:54pm Sun 11 May 08
After supporting multiculturalism for many years, Phillips is now one of its most outspoken mainstream critics.
He has also expressed fears that multiculturalism could cause Britain to "sleepwalk towards segregation"
Phillips has also called for
the need for free speech to "allow people to offend each other."
If even a man like Phillips, whose entire life has been very comfortably funded by the race relations, feels able to say such things, why not the lefty fools who initially installed him as the self-proclaimed 'expert' on such matters?
Paula, Swindon says...
10:38pm Mon 12 May 08
n.com/petitions/arne
l-cabrera-should-be-
allowed-to-stay-in-t
he-uk
Surely the Government could show more compassion and honor Mayras wish to raise her family in the UK.
Your sayYourSwindon
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Arnel Cabrera with a picture of his son Zac
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Frontier(s), says...
10:53am Fri 9 May 08
While his wife's death was undoubtedly a tradgedy (and highlights the problem of the NHS killing around 10,000 people per year), it does not - and should not - somehow automatically qualify this man and his son for citizenship of the UK.
I would have thought, given the circumstances, Mr Cabrera would wish to return to his homeland and be with his son.
I admire his determination to be with his son on his birthday and wish both him and his son the very best of the luck moving forward with their lives.
Anne Snelgrove's comment about letting the Home Office 'off the hook' is as overly emotive as it is unfair. For once, the Home Office has done nothing wrong in this instance.
Still, it's good that she has experienced just how inflexible, unhelpful and stacked against the ordinary person her hopeless government really is.