A teacher in Colchester is unable to visit her critically-ill mother in a Canadian hospital after the Home Office lost her passport.
Passport problem - Tara Haddrell, with daughters Claudine, two, and Maisie, six months, is unable to visit her sick mother in Canada Picture: STEVE ARGENT
Tara Haddrell, 37, of Falcon Crescent, New Town, said she is being kept a virtual prisoner in the UK after repeated attempts to get her passport returned to her failed.
She said she wants to travel to Vancouver to visit her mother who is in hospital, but is concerned if she leaves Britain she will not be able to return to her husband and two young children.
Haddrell said she sent her Canadian passport to the Home Office two years ago with her husband Nick's British one.
The documents were sent off as she needed to alter her residency classification after getting married, but the couple heard nothing from the Home Office for five months.
They only discovered their passports had been lost when they called officials to ask why there had been a delay.
Ms Haddrell made a fresh application for residency, but was told she faced deportation as she did not have the documents to show she had permisison to be in the UK.
"I am virtually a prisoner," she said.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the case, but we can't comment on individual cases.
"It is regrettable when there is a delay with processing an application, but when there is, we try to do all we can to help."
Published Thursday March 4, 2004
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