Woman living in UK for 22 years faces deportation

Tony Fisher

BBC News, Bedfordshire

A woman who has been living in the UK for 22 years said she has been left “traumatised” after being told she could be deported.

Amika Brown, 41, from Luton, said she married for the second time in 2019, about two weeks after being naturalised as a British citizen and getting a British passport.

Last month she received a letter from the Home Office which said she had gained her citizenship using a false identity and as a result could be “removed” from the UK and sent back to her native Jamaica.

In a statement, the Home Office said: “It is our longstanding position that we do not comment on individual cases.”

Mrs Brown emailed the Home Office her birth certificate to confirm her name and the fact that she was born in 1982, as opposed to 1979, which the letter from the Home Office claims.

She also emailed her brother’s birth certificate, which shows he was born in 1979, to prove they have her date of birth wrong as they both could not have been born “within three months” of each other.

Mrs Brown said she felt like she was in limbo as she had not heard back from the Home Office since emailing over evidence of her identity.

She did receive an automated response but said she was worried she could be “stripped of her citizenship” if it was not looked into.

Mrs Brown said she was upset when she received the letter from the Home Office in September.

“I am not a fraudster,” she said.

As well as seeking a letter from the Home Office confirming she has proven her identity and is not a fraudster, she would also like an apology.

“I have never had any points on my licence, I abide by the law and all the good I have done has not paid off,” she said.

Mrs Brown said she graduated in July from the University of Bedfordshire in accounting and finance and hoped to become a fully chartered accountant.

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