A bereaved couple appealed to the home office to speed up a visa decision and quickly granted permission for their eight-year-old son to be homeless in Jamaica.
Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown was cared for by her grandmother in Cash Hill, Hanover, a part of the island that badly damaged through the storm. His Jamaican mother, Kerri Chianhy, came to the UK to join his British father, Jerome Hardy, in April 2023. The couple married earlier that year.
The couple, who live in North London, saved up to pay a VISA fee of more than £4,000 to get their daughter to join the UK. They applied for a settlement Visa for him in June and are still waiting for the home office’s decision.
They say that after Hurricane Melissa, an urgent situation has become an emergency. Their lawyer and the local MP, Dawn Bayler, urged the home office to speed up the Visa decision-making process.
Hardy, a telecommunications worker, said: “We are just waiting for a decision from the home office in the hope that we can save a plane and save our daughter in the UK.
“The family’s house in Cash Hill was completely destroyed by the storm and Lati-Yana lived in one room at the time with 15 people. There was no difficulty in accessing.”
BIGBY, a care worker, said: “I’m very sad, I can’t eat or sleep. If I find any food in my mouth, I can’t eat because I think of LOTI-Yana who struggles to get food.
“After the storm, my sister who lives in the same place as my daughter was able to make a phone call. She said: ‘We are all safe but everything is lost.’
“I haven’t been able to speak to Lati-Yana since the storm but we spoke on the phone before it hit the island. She understood me: ‘Mummy, if we don’t take care of yourself.’
“I am appealing to the home office to grant our daughter a visa as a matter of urgency so we can get her safely to the UK.”
At least 28 deaths have been confirmed as a result of the Category 5 Hurricane, which hit Jamaica on 28 October. Earlier this week, rescue services said more than 70% of people on the island no access to electricity And about 6,000 people are still in emergency shelters.
Naga Kandiah, of the MTC Solicitor, who represented the family, said: “An eight-year-old with no house payments.
“When Melissa Melaica Melissa Melaica, her house was destroyed. Overnight she went from a child waiting to be reunited with her parents to a child without shelter, uncertain of tomorrow.
“We ask the home office to act quickly and bring this young woman back so she can be reunited with the parents who love her and are doing everything in their power to protect her.”
A spokesperson for the home office at home: “All Visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with immigration rules.”