§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Ainger]
10.21 pm§ Miss Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone and The Weald)I am grateful for the opportunity to raise a case that concerns a young constituent of mine, Madeline Effala. It is very much a tale of two cities—of London and Paris—so I suppose that I should be grateful that at least it involves no guillotine. It is certainly an unfortunate case of somebody being caught between two countries, of responsibility being passed to and fro between those countries, and of my constituent finding herself at the moment with no settled status.
In that context, I ask the Minister—I understand why she is replying to the debate; after all, I chose to call the debate "Immigration Control"—to ensure that her colleagues in the Foreign Office are fully apprised of the contents of this Adjournment debate. I ask her to ask them to consider in turn ensuring that the French Government are aware of the problem. I shall make it clear later why I say that. I tried to make an approach via our embassy in Paris—but of that more later.
Madeline Effala was born in Cameroon on 24 August 1975. When she was 11 years old, her mother went to France to work in the Cameroon embassy. Madeline remained in France, where she was lawfully resident as the child of a diplomat, throughout the rest of her childhood. When she was 22 years old, she came to the United Kingdom—again, perfectly lawfully; her passport was stamped with leave to remain for one year—on a work placement. That was where her problems started.
Madeline's mother and siblings applied for French citizenship and were granted it on the basis of the length of time that they had been in France and of the fact that they were at that moment resident in France. There is no doubt—nobody so far throughout the case has disputed this—that had Madeline been with her mother and siblings and made her own application at that time, she too would now be a French citizen. However, as it happened, she was not in France and could not do so. She was in the UK.
Madeline's visa enabling her to live in France was due to expire in 1997, so she went to the French embassy in London in order to renew it and to ensure that at the end of her work placement in Britain she would be allowed to return to France. The French embassy in London told her that to renew the visa she had to go to France, so she went to France. When she applied in France, she was told that she had to apply in London, so she came back to London. Once Madeline had returned to London, the French embassy refused to accept the form.
By that time, Madeline's right to remain in this country had expired and she was told that she had no right to return to France. She was told that she could not stay here, and that she could not go back to France. Despite the fact that she had resided there for many years perfectly lawfully and that those who had resided with her had been granted French citizenship, and despite the fact that the authorities here knew that she was trying to return to France, she was told that she had no right to remain. After negotiation, it was agreed that 620 she should have a six-month extension to her visa to remain in the United Kingdom, but she was still refused permission in that period to go to France. The authorities refused to accept her form and would not allow her to go to France, and her stay in this country, while lawful, was only temporary. In the end, her visa expired, and although she is known to the authorities and has various outstanding applications, she has had no settled basis for living in this country since 1998, despite the fact that she is working legally and paying national insurance and tax.
In 1999, Miss Effala's solicitors advised her to apply for a two-year permit to remain in this country, but the Home Office turned it down in December 2000. At that point, I became involved and endeavoured to intervene first with the French consulate, arguing that it was unreasonable, given the background to the case, that Miss Effala could not at least enter France and make her application. I also wanted to go out to talk to our embassy in Paris, but it advised me that there was no point, as Miss Effala was not a British citizen, so it could not make representations on her behalf. Once again, Madeline Effala is being passed between two countries, neither of which wants to take any responsibility or is prepared even to entertain making representations. I therefore hope that my comments will be drawn to the attention of the French embassy.
The only course open to Miss Effala is to go back to Cameroon. She has no contacts whatever there since she grew up in France, where her family live. She has a job and is using the money she earns to assist her family. She has been in a relationship for four years with a British citizen. It would be very easy for her to solve the problem by getting married—it is much to her credit that she does not want to do that, but wants to resolve the problem in its own right and settle lawfully either in France or Britain. Bearing in mind the fact that marriage is often abused to overcome immigration problems, that is much to her credit. As a result of my intervention, the Home Office asked for another raft of material, which was provided on 11 October, but no further contact has been made with Miss Effala or, at this stage, with me.
This is a sad and sorry situation. Doubtless both countries can defend their decisions technically, but they defy common sense, humanity and reason. I should have thought that sensible people could find a way through, accepting that but for Miss Effala's bad luck in being this country when the rest of her family got French citizenship and but for her perfectly lawful work placement, she would not be in her present difficulties. Indeed, she might not have got into that problem had she not been advised in 1997 that she had to go to France, then been told by France that she had to come back to London, then been told when she came back to London that the French would not take the form. Where does that leave her?
I appeal to the Minister to speak to her counterparts in the Foreign Office, to look at whether her own officials could apply reason rather than technicalities to this case, and to see whether something can be achieved. The French have now offered, very much at the last minute, to allow Ms Effala to return to France on a tourist visa. If she returns to France on a tourist visa and her application is turned down, she will have no right at all to return to this country and no right to stay in 621 France. She feels that the tourist visa would put her in an extremely vulnerable position, but at least it would get her back into France.
If proper representations could be made, the case would be cleared up very quickly. It is nonsense. It has taken four years to persuade the French to issue a temporary visa, and my constituent naturally feels extremely vulnerable as a result of all that has gone before. I should be grateful to hear the Minister's comments and observations.
§ The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes)I congratulate the right hon. Lady on securing the debate. I understand the reasons why she has done so, because we have had correspondence about the case. Notwithstanding the fact that she has set out some of the background, I think it would be helpful if I could add to that essential background before making some concluding remarks.
As the right hon. Lady said, Ms Effala entered the United Kingdom on 27 May 1997 and at that point was given leave to enter not for a year, but until 27 November that year under the training and work experience scheme. She was then granted further leave to continue her training with Dual Control International Theatre until March 1998. Her employers were advised at that time, however, that the extension under the training and work experience scheme had been granted exceptionally and that no further extension would be approved.
As the right hon. Lady said, before travelling to the UK, Ms Effala had been residing in France with her mother and her siblings. She held a French student visa on arrival in the UK, but that expired in October 1997. Following completion of her work experience, Ms Effala applied to the French embassy for a visa to return to France to attend the college in Aix-en-Provence. Unfortunately, I agree, it seems that once the French authorities realised that she had entered France with a diplomatic passport, she encountered difficulties in obtaining a visa to return there to continue her studies.
Ms Effala was then granted exceptional leave to remain for six months as a visitor, specifically to try and sort out her visa problems with the French embassy. She was unable to resolve her difficulties with the French authorities and applied once again for leave to remain in the United Kingdom while she pursued her application for a French visa. I must say to the right hon. Lady that although I was not Minister at the time, looking back at the case—I have looked at it in some detail—I think that Ms Effala's plight was considered very sympathetically, and again she was granted exceptionally six months further leave to remain, outside the immigration rules, precisely because of the predicament that she was in with the French authorities.
In August 1999 Ms Effala's solicitors applied on her behalf for leave to remain as a working holidaymaker, with a request that the entry clearance requirement exceptionally be waived. Although the Home Office was sympathetic to her plight, 17 months had by then passed since Ms Effala had first approached the Department about her difficulties with the French authorities.
The crucial point is—and while I agree with every other aspect of the right hon. Lady's account, this element was missing from it—that there was no evidence 622 to suggest that Ms Effala had made any progress in resolving her difficulties, or indeed had devoted much effort to doing so. She did not qualify for leave to remain as a working holidaymaker, and she seemed unable to establish clearly how she should return to France, where, as has been said, she has strong family and cultural ties. In view of that, her application to remain as a working holidaymaker was refused on 10 December 1999.
Ms Effala's solicitors and my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Medway (Mr. Marshall-Andrews) submitted further representations on her behalf. The then Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche), wrote on 1 June 2000 that she would be prepared to review the case if Ms Effala submitted evidence from the French authorities explaining the reasons for their reluctance to grant her a visa to return to France, together with an estimate of when they expected to reach a decision. What was required was just some evidence of Ms Effala's efforts to get the French authorities to take the matter seriously. I am afraid that no evidence was received, and in December 2000 Ms Effala's solicitors were advised that in the absence of the evidence requested, there were no grounds for reversing the refusal decision. They were also advised that Ms Effala had no basis for remaining in the United Kingdom, and that she should arrange to leave immediately.
I understand exactly what the right hon. Lady is saying. It seems, on the face of it, that two countries were passing the buck. But when it comes to Ms Effala's right to remain in the UK—while I am sympathetic in regard to her problem with the French authorities—I hope the right hon. Lady agrees that giving her leeway to try and sort out the issues with the French authorities, which is where the problems lie, should not have meant riding roughshod over immigration rules that apply to others and simply saying "All right, you can stay in the UK". Ms Effala's case has been treated sympathetically in the past, and I do not think it unreasonable for her to have been asked to provide a letter from the French authorities giving the reasons why they were not prepared—or have not been up to now—to issue a visa enabling her to join her family.
Incidentally, I am rather perplexed about the role of Ms Effala's family, all of whom are French citizens. I do not see why they cannot do more to help her secure some recognition and response from the French authorities.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo be able to get into France at all, and certainly to be able to obtain French citizenship, Ms Effala must have an application accepted. Never mind whether the application is successful; the physical process of getting an application accepted must be carried out by Ms Effala. Members of her family cannot make an application on her behalf.
I have already explained the problem. Ms Effala was tossed about between various countries. She was told "You do it in this country", then "You do it in that country", and then "No, actually, you do in that country"—and then "We will not accept the form". I do not accept that she has not made efforts. Much of the information that has been sought was, in fact, sent to the Home Office in the letter to which I referred. We have not yet received a response. I am not saying that there is anything unusual about that—the matter has been 623 outstanding since 11 October, not for months on end-but the information has been sent. My constituent told me that she had not understood the extent of the information required.
When two countries are involved, can the embassies not talk to each other? Cannot someone talk to someone else?
§ Beverley HughesI will come to that. I understand that Ms Effala must make an application herself, but if the right hon. Lady examines the very thick case file she will see that there were long periods during which information was requested from Ms Effala and she did not contact Home Office officials.
That is one issue. The other issue is that the difficulties have been with the French authorities. Short of the final point that the right hon. Lady made about whether embassies can speak to one another, what has been done by the Home Office is all that could have been done.
I understand that Ms Effala wrote a letter on 11 October in reply to a request for information. She enclosed copies of her family's French naturalisation certificates. She did not provide any documentation at all concerning her own French visa application, which is what she was specifically asked to provide: evidence that she had made attempts in contacting the French authorities to seek permission to enter the country by visa. That did not arrive in the letter of 11 October, which contained simply photocopies of her family's naturalisation status, which as I say is not of itself evidence of her efforts with regard to the French authorities.
I wrote to the right hon. Lady in August setting out how matters could be taken forward. As I say, Ms Effala has now provided confirmation that her family has French citizenship but she has not provided evidence from the French authorities setting out the reasons why they are not prepared to issue her with a visa to join her family. It has been over four and a half years since she first notified the Home Office of her difficulties in returning to France. During that time the only documentation that she has provided regarding evidence of any visa application is the original application form dated 19 January 1998. She has provided no further documentation to demonstrate that she is pursuing with the French authorities the application, despite repeated requests to do so. I do not say that to heap blame on that young woman but there is another perspective. Information about her efforts has been sought over a long period and has not been forthcoming.
624 I appreciate that Ms Effala has found herself in a difficult position that is not originally of her making and that by coming to the UK to take up work experience she may have missed an opportunity to gain French citizenship. I am not passing the buck but I hope that the right hon. Lady will accept that in terms of where Ms Effala's future lies, clearly, her difficulties are with the French authorities. That is the key to a resolution of this matter.
Ms Effala says that she accompanied her mother to France in 1986. As has been said, she stayed there for 11 years before she came here. It is to the French authorities that she needs to put the case for compassionate treatment in the light of her strong cultural and family ties.
I accept the point that the right hon. Lady is concerned about: I would not want to contemplate the option of a return to Cameroon, although, theoretically, that is an option. The compassionate aspects have been made clear during the debate. I appreciate that Ms Effala would find it difficult to assimilate the different culture of the Cameroon.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe reason why I charge in at this point is that I sense that the Minister is beginning to perorate and coming to the end of her speech. The assurance that I have been asking for throughout is this: can someone from the British Government please draw this matter to the attention of the French Government? Even if we cannot make formal representations because Ms Effala is not a British citizen, can we just talk to them?
§ Beverley HughesI was not trying to duck—
§ Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)To perorate.
§ Beverley HughesI was not perorating at all. Nor was I trying to avoid the specific question that the right hon. Lady asked. As she will accept—she has already said that the application has come from Ms Effala—the onus has to be on the particular applicant, but I am willing to try to explore the extent to which the offices of if not my Department, then the Foreign Office, can be brought to bear to try to get the French authorities to respond. While Ms Effala herself, and specifically her representatives, could perhaps have been rather more persistent, I accept that there has been a problem in getting a response from the French authorities. I cannot give any guarantees, but I am certainly willing to explore that possibility with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and we will see where that gets us.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at fifteen minutes to Eleven o 'clock.