The archbishop of York has called on David Cameron to intervene personally in the “tragic” case of a five-year-old girl whose Zimbabwean grandparents have been refused permission to travel to the UK to attend her funeral.
Archbishop John Sentamu added his support to calls for the prime minister to reverse a Home Office decision that refused visas to the grandparents of Andrea Gada, who died after being hit by a car near her home in Eastbourne, East Sussex, shortly before Christmas.
A petition on the website change.org had been signed by more than 92,000 people by Monday and is to be presented by Andrea’s parents, Wellington and Charity Gada, to No 10 on Tuesday. The couple had previously written to Cameron, appealing to him “as a father, not as a politician”, but have so far received no reply.
An early day motion has been tabled by the couple’s Liberal Democrat MP, Stephen Lloyd, requesting that “the prime minister and the home secretary urgently intervene and reverse this decision”.
In his letter to Cameron, Sentamu said: “Having read about the situation, I feel sure that you will understand the need, in this instance, to intervene to ensure that the [grandparents] are able to attend this tragic funeral.”
Andrea’s parents have said that her grandfather Stanley Bwanya, 65, grandmother Grace and aunt Monalisa Faith Bwanya would even offer to wear electronic tags and report regularly to a police station. Lloyd has offered personally to guarantee their departure from the UK after the funeral.
Lloyd said visas had been refused because the three had not travelled out of Zimbabwe before, they could not demonstrate a regular income, and therefore there was a danger they would abscond while in Britain. But he said it was not surprising that the three – the grandparents are street traders and the aunt is a hairdresser – could not demonstrate a regular income in Zimbabwe.
Andrea’s parents are Seventh Day Adventists and said it was very important to them “both for cultural and religious reasons” that Charity’s close family attend the funeral. Wellington, 38, said the local community had raised £5,000 towards travel costs. “The longer it is going on, the more it is affecting us both, Charity even worse because she has not got the support of her parents and sister by her side.”
The issue was raised by Lloyd at prime minister’s questions two weeks ago, when Cameron told the Commons it was “heartbreaking” when children were killed in accidents. He added: “I will certainly look into the case – I was just discussing it with the home secretary – and make sure that the Home Office has a careful look to see what can be done.”
But a day later immigration minister James Brokenshire wrote to Lloyd, the Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon, informing him that the request had been rejected after a review “taking into account the tragic circumstances”.
